Help Wanted
by Lex55
Summary: Xander needs a new secretary and Buffy just happens to beavailable. Chaos ensues.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: "Help Wanted"  
By: Lexie Summary: Xander needs a new secretary and Buffy just happens to be available. Chaos ensues.  
Disclaimer: I definitely don't own Buffy. If I did BX would have happened long long ago and would probably be married by now and there would have been at least two Xander's in every episode since there's twins that I could use. Two Xander's is always a good in my book. But anyways Fox, Mutant Enemy, UPN, and who ever else, owns everything Buffy related. Not me no matter how much I wish for two Xander's.  
Rating: PGish Category: Humor/Romance**

**A/N: Dedicated to Brooke and Shawn:) **

**A/N 2: Line break means changing of POVs. **

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"Help Wanted"**

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Xander pulled his blue Explorer up into the driveway just as the first few raindrops began to spill from the bleary gray sky. Xander couldn't help but think that this was the perfect ending for his day. This day could go down in the books as "Xander's day from Hell".

As he trudged towards the house he thought about how his life came to this day. All in all life had been going pretty great for him. After Buffy defeated the first, life did as it always does at the end of every May and simply went back to normal. Or as normal one could be living in Sunnydale. Only except this time everyone in the Scooby Gang pretty much left Sunnydale in order to build the new Watcher's Council.

Giles and Andrew were currently in the UK setting up new headquarters there. They took all of the Slayers-in-Training with them to continue training them. Faith and Robin where roaming around the country in search for little slayers and sending them directly to Giles to be put under his supervision. After the whole first slayer fiasco, Willow and Giles agreed it would be best if they could learn all they could about the origins of the slayer.

So Willow, with the help of Kennedy, got a team up and were in Africa studying "really neat old stuff", as Willow had called it the last time he talk to her on the phone. All seemed to be fairly busy with their new assignments and yet all seemed to be happy and well.

The only ones left were Buffy, Dawn, and himself. Dawn decided that she wanted to finish out high school and basically wanted to be a normal teenager. She wanted to gossip on the phone with her friends, stress over tests, go to dances, and suffer through biology like the rest of them. Except she vowed to not blow up her school like her older sister did.

When Dawn made her feelings known about wanting to stay in Sunnydale, Buffy made a decision to stay behind and watch her little sister grow up. She decided she had had enough of fighting wanna be slayers for bathrooms, trying to get blood stains out of her clothes, or trying to explain why she had two blown up high schools on her record. She simply wanted to live again. She didn't want to be on the other side of the world while her sister was going to her senior prom. So Buffy retired her stakes.

One thing that Buffy learned about herself last year was that she really did enjoy counseling at SDH. She says she loves the feeling of helping someone or just listening to them when they need her. So she decided to make a career of it. She officially became a Sunnydale University student again the fallowing fall.

Xander was really proud of his girls. They were both doing well in school. Buffy had just plowed through her first year at school and was getting her degree in psychology. Dawn will be a senior in high school next year and will be graduating in the top of her class. The Summers girls finally got the hang of the whole school thing.

As for why he stayed in Sunnydale, well he simply couldn't picture any where else he wanted to be. Before Buffy announced her decision to the group, he and Buffy sat down one night and had a long discussion about everyone's future. She told him about Dawn wanting to stay behind and what it would mean if she were to leave her little sister behind. She discussed her thoughts about retiring from the slayer world.

Xander could have not agreed with Buffy more. He too wanted those things for Dawn, Buffy, and even himself. So that night Xander made the decision to stay behind and also watch Dawnie grow.

After Anya's death, living alone in his apartment was unbearable and he always found himself at Buffy's. Buffy must have noticed this and asked him one day to bring the rest of his stuff on over and officially call it home.

"Home sweet home" he said as he was walking in the front door. The first thing he noticed when he stepped in, was the smell of the HoneyDew Melon Candle he had bought Buffy the weekend before at the mall. She told him she didn't like the fragrance of all of Willow's magic candles. Plus, she was always a little worried to light one up for the fear of accidentally saying the wrong thing around it and then Bam! there goes an innocent by standards body part! You could never be too safe with magic, Giles always said. Thinking of his luck with magic and more importantly his own body parts, he quickly bought Buffy a 24 pack of non-magical candles. Plus, he really did love how her face would light up when he would surprise her with little things like that.

The first thing he noticed when he stepped into the house was the sound of the TV and the faint voices of Buffy and Dawn coming from the living room. He was happy that they were both home because he could finally get some sympathy for his bad day.

With that thought he headed towards the living room with a purpose.  
Once in there he saw that Dawn was laying back in the recliner, with the remote in hand, flipping channels. Buffy was standing by the window watching the rainfall. Xander made his entrance known with a loud sigh and dramatically flopping on the couch, taking up the whole expanse of the couch with his flailed out arms and legs.

No one seemed to notice his grand entrance because Buffy continue staring out the window and Dawn just kept on flipping. So he sighed loudly again. And again the girls didn't take note of his distress state. He tried once more but this time put a small whimper in there for effect.

Nothing. Nada. Zip. Not even a "what's wrong Xander?" Here he was sprawled out on the couch after having his day in hell and they didn't even look his way once. How dareth they! They were suppose to come running the moment he let his distress known! They were supposed to make it all better with hugs and massages. All the while wearing short skirts and tight t-shirts. Preferably it being Buffy wearing the short skirt and tight t-shirt, little Dawnie of course would be decently clothed but would have a tall glass of ice tea and a box of Twinkies in hand to make up for it. But what were they doing? Ignoring him! So this time he made a loud moan and flailed his legs and arms again. They couldn't possibly ignore that!

Dawn just glared at the TV harder and turned the volume up more.

"Aren't you even going to ask how my day was! Man, you guys are much more supportive and caring in my mind."

"You're day? What about my day? This is the first day of my glorious summer and what does it do? It rains! This summer officially sucks" Buffy announced from her position at the window. She could feel Xander's annoyed glare on her back. "Fiiiinnne how was your day Xander?"

"Why thank you for asking Buffy! I had the most horrible day. It all started off this morning when, Edna my secretary, called in saying she was quiting and moving to Florida. Apparently Florida has something to offer senior citizens that a construction site in California doesn't. So then all day I..."

"Wait a minute." Dawn interrupted. "Isn't Edna the one you are always whining about being mean to you?"

Xander scoffed at her. "I do not whine!" Off the "yeah right" look that Dawn was giving him, he sat up on the couch and turned to Buffy. "Do I whine Buffy?"

Buffy turned her head towards the two of them and raised her eyebrow. She suddenly felt like she was walking in a minefield with the attention on her answer. "Umm. I wouldn't call it whining. You sometimes pout when you talk and it makes you're voice sound all high pitched...like a whine, but not quite."

"Ha!" Xander turned back to Dawn with a cocky grin on his face. "Thank you Buff. See I don't whine..." suddenly he thought about what Buffy said and a confused look came over his face and he cocked his head to the side. "Wait a minute...Hey!"

Before he could turn back to Buffy, Dawn brought his attention back to the subject before hand. "Xander, continue on with you're story about old Edna moving to Florida"

"Oh yeah" Xander continued on "Anyways, Edna quit and now I am short one secretary. In fact it was the only secretary I had. So today the office was a mad house. I had to do all the photocopying myself. The coffee machine wouldn't work right. I had to answer the phones and direct them to where they needed to be. And do you know how hard it is to check your messages in your message box if you don't have the code to get into it! Because I was so busy doing office work I didn't get a chance to go out to the site and tell my men about the changes the company wants to make from the original plan. So then they didn't know what they were suppose to do or not to do and now they have to go back and change the stuff they accomplished today, thus putting us behind. It was complete utter chaos. And to top it all off some guy named Barney ate my lunch!"

"Wow that's intense" Dawn dead panned. "So what are you going to do now that you don't have a secretary?"

Xander sighed and rested his head against the back of the couch. "I guess I'll have to find a new one."

Upon hearing this Buffy turned away from the window suddenly interested in the conversation.

"I hate hiring people. You have to go through all that awkward interviewing with answering weird pointless questions. Except now I will be on the other side of the desk asking the weird pointless questions." Xander said while reminiscing about some of the many awkward job interviews he had been on in his time.

Buffy stood behind him with a slow grin appearing on her face. She was out of school for the summer and for the first time in 3 months she was able to work. She desperately needed the money. Last time she heard, Xander pays his secretaries pretty well. How hard could being a secretary be? Answer a few phones, do some typing, and make some coffee. Couldn't be that hard, right? Besides this was Xander here. He was the sweetest guy in the world and he was her best friend. This couldn't be better.

Buffy rushed around the couch and plopped down right beside Xander. She grabbed his hand and held it in hers. "Oh Xander! That's just awful! Whatever will you do now?"

Dawn looked at their joined hands and cocked an eyebrow up. Before she could say anything Buffy continued to lay it on thick.

"You are left behind all by your lonesome with all that office work to do. How dare Ellie do that to you!"

"It's actually Edna but Hey! There's that caring I was talking about earlier!" Xander grinned. "And yup. I'm all alone and now I have to hire someone else. It shouldn't be too hard. All I have to do is put an add in the paper."

"Not hard? Xander have you ever hired anyone before?"

"Well no, not really. They mostly just said there's your office, your desk, and your secretary. Go.Work. Now."

"See you've never hired anyone before. Now you will have to do that all on your own. You'll have to come up with an add to put in the paper. Then you'll have to start making appointments for all the people who want to try for the job. You'll have all these resumes floating around the office. You'll have to get credentials on these people and call to get references on them" By this point Xander's eyes were as wide as saucers. "Then you said it yourself, there will be the awkward interviewing. Then there will be the whole big decision of who should you hire? Do you know how indecisive you are, Xander? For dinner last night it took you 45 minutes to decide between pizza and Chinese food. And after all that you ate at Burger King!"

"Ugggghh" Xander took his free hand and rubbed his forehead. "You're right. This will be really tough!"

"But don't worry Xander. You have the answer to all you problems sitting right in front of you"

At this Xander sat up straighter and look around. "I do?"

"Yes, silly! Me!"

Dawn busted out laughing. "Oh this is going to be good"

Xander just stared at her. "You?"

"Yes, Me. Buffy, you're best friend"

"So you're gonna help me hire someone new?"

"Nooo. You're gonna hire me!"

Dawn started laughing harder than before while wiping the tears away from her eyes as she pleaded, "Oh Buffy Stop you're killing me here!"

Buffy just glared at her sister.

"You?"

"You've already said that, but yes Xander me"

"Oh" He stated meekly. "Um...well..." Danger! Danger! Xander Harris!This is bad. Here's Buffy sitting right beside him giving him her pleading eyes, which was always cute and annoying at the same time. She wanted him to hire her to be his secretary. Meaning he would be over her, giving her orders to do stuff. Important stuff. Important stuff that his paycheck depended on kind of stuff. Buffy taking orders? No, no good would come from this at all. "Buff...I dunno..."

"What's there not to know? This is perfect." She told him happily.

"Well, remember the last time we tried the whole lets work together thing? That really didn't work out for the best"

"Yeah but see this is completely different. That was working in the hot sun getting all sweaty and stuff. And that demon attacking was totally not my fault." She waved it off with her hand.

"Yes, but all the damage you created excluding the demon fight was."

Buffy completely ignored his last shot at her. "Besides, back then I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was kinda lost. But now I do know what I want to do. Things are way better now. And this will only be for the summer, which by the way I will be completely free for. And this is a good time to make some money" She pouted at him. "You wouldn't want to put me and Dawn out on the street, would you?"

"Yeah, about that summer thing I thought you wanted to hone in on your skills as a slacker for the summer. Just the other day you were saying that you were excited about sleeping in, watching pointless talk shows all day, laying out and getting a nice tan, and doing absolutely nothing for long periods of time. All of which I whole heartily agreed upon, especially, the laying out part. What about that huh? You really must seize up all the chances you can get at being a slacker. I wouldn't want to take that away from you."

"You wouldn't be taking that away from me"

"Yeah Xander, she's right you wouldn't be taking that away from her. I'm sure she can still hone in her slacker skills while working for you" Dawn piped in while trying to keep a straight face. Buffy turned around to give her sister the "slayer glare" but she was distracted when Xander stood up and her hand slipped out of his in the process.

Xander needed to get up and think. He started to pace around the room.

"Well see Buffy being my secretary is important stuff. Big deadlines are due soon. There will be lots of busy work to be done and with long hours! What about your secretary skills? How many words can you type per minute? Can you make good coffee? And what about filing things, that's very important stuff" Oh he had her now. He's tasted her coffee before. That stuff could be used as a line of defense against any foe.

"Well I've actually never counted how many words I can type." She started ticking off with her fingers. "There's a starbuck's on every corner. And you've seen my closets: the shoes are meticulously arranged."

"You do have nice closets." He thought out loud. "But see we'll be working day in and day out together. Things might get tense. People tend to get tense when they are cooped up with me for long hours on end and you'll be doing it at work and at home."

"Pffftt I've known you for 8 years now and I haven't gotten tired of you yet!" She grinned up at him. "Who gets tired of the Xan-Man?"

She realizes this is going to be harder than expected. She was going to have to bring out the big guns. So she stood up to match him.

"Xander think of all the benefits this will have! We can save gas because we can car pool. And we can..."

"Wait you can't drive and you have no car. Either I or Dawn take you everywhere so therefore its pretty much a given that we will be car pooling, except it will only be my car and only me driving...the only exception now would be that I would be paying you for it!"

"Okay so think of the other benefits. I can make us lunches and put them in cute little brown paper bags with our names on them and then we can both eat them together at work. And we can trade off lunches like the old days! It will be just like the old days!" Buffy started edging slowly towards him. Once she was right in front of him she put her arms around him and put her chin on his chest looking up at him. She put in the extra step of putting on her famous "Buffy pout". He was a gonner for sure now.

Working day in and day out with Buffy Summers. What would that be like? Xander thought to himself. Xander then sighed deeply. He was a weak man. "Well I wouldn't want you and Dawnie to live out on the streets. I would get lonely."

"So is that a Yes?" Buffy asked excitedly.

"Yes" Xander said.

"Yay!" She hugged Xander tightly now and Xander's arms wrapped around her in a tight embrace. "You will not regret this I promise! I'll be the best secretary in all of the history of secretaries!"

Dawn busted out laughing again.

"Seriously, you guys have got to stop! I'm gonna pee on myself here!

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	2. Chapter 2

**Title: "Help Wanted"  
By: Lexie  
Summary: Xander needs a new secretary and Buffy just happens to be  
available. Chaos ensues.  
Disclaimer: I definitely don't own Buffy. If I did BX would have  
happened long long ago and would probably be married by now and there  
would have been at least two Xander's in every episode since there's  
twins that I could use. Two Xander's is always a good in my book. But  
anyways Fox, Mutant Enemy, UPN, and who ever else, owns everything  
Buffy related. Not me no matter how much I wish for two Xander's.  
Rating: PGish  
Category: Humor/Romance**

**This fic is dedicated to Shawn and Brooke.**

** A/N: Line Break means changing of POVs and/or scene change.**

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"Help Wanted"**

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**Next Day  
7:00 AM**

Xander stood at the bottom of the stairs and for the 27th time in the  
last half hour he looks at his watch. This was not good. Today is  
Buffy's very first day and she is late. Not only is she late but she  
also making him late!

"Buffffy!" he yelled up the stairs "Hey! Could we hurry it up a bit,  
up there!"

"Just a minute!" she called back in an innocent tone.

"Yeah that's what you said 15 minutes ago" he mumbled to himself.

"Almost ready!" she called again.

"And you said that 30 minutes ago"

What could be possibly taking so long? Who takes this much time to get  
ready? And more importantly who was late on their first day? Okay,  
well, he really couldn't say much because he had done that on one or  
two occasions back in his career exploring days. But he never made  
anyone else late.

Normally he would have left an hour ago, but now he had to stand here  
and wait for Buffy. She wanted to ride together because she thought it  
would be fun. So far he was not seeing the fun in causing his blood  
pressure to go up.

Buffy finally appeared at the top of the stairs. She was wearing a  
stylish blue knew length skirt and grey fleece button up with a white  
halter top underneath. She decided to wear her hair down so that her  
long blonde curls lay softly on her shoulders. To Xander she looked  
like a perfect goddess ready to rule her world. Not someone who was  
about to go to a hot sticky construction site to do errands for a  
bunch of smelly men.

Xander threw his arms up in the air. "Finally! I was about to send a  
search party for you."

She started descending down the stairs while putting on her earrings.  
"Okay first of all who gets up at this un-godly hour?"

"People who want to receive this little thing called a pay check at  
the end of the week."

Buffy just rolled her eyes and looked up at him once she was standing  
right in front of him. "And secondly I think my alarm is broken so I  
couldn't help that I got up late."

"Yeah I noticed that when I stepped on all the little clock piece on  
the floor when I had to go into your room and drag you from the bed  
this morning. I don't think there's any hope for it. You slayed it  
good." Xander grabbed her arm and started pulling her towards the  
door. "Now come on we gotta hurry we are late enough!"

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10 minutes later  
Future site of the Sunnydale Millennium Mall.**

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A cloud of dust swirled around the SUV as Xander made a screeching  
halt in front of the site. "Welcome to the future site of the  
Sunnydale Millennium Mall!" he said as he was trying to unbuckle his  
seat belt.

Buffy sat there with one hand on the dash board in front of her and  
her other hand plastered to the window beside her head. "Wow I'm just  
happy we made it here" She exhaled deeply. "There were a couple of  
times back there I was really beginning to wonder if we would!"

"Yeah well we made it here in record time. And we didn't get pulled  
over or anything" he said as he was leaning into the back seat trying  
to retrieve his brief case and some of his rolled up plans.

"Yes I'm sure the old lady on 5th avenue shares your enthusiasm after  
you almost plowed her over." She watched him gather his stuff together  
with out paying her any attention. "She had a walker and everything,"  
she mumbled to herself.

Xander turned back towards the front seat with a bundle of plans in  
one hand and his brief case in the other with a cheesy smile put in  
place. "I would just like to be the first to say Johnston & Johnston  
construction welcomes you with open arms!"

"Aw, Xand. Thanks, that's very swee…"

"Yes now get out and get moving! Because time is ticking away here!"  
With that he jumped out of the car and slammed his door shut while  
hurrying around the car.

"…sweet of you" She said to no one particular as she stared at his  
once vacant side of the car. She turned back to her side and unbuckled  
her self and stepped out of the car.

She took a moment to take in her surroundings. It was a very large  
site. As far as she could see, she saw red dirt covering the expanse  
of the ground. In the middle was a large concrete foundation. With  
large concrete tunnels lying on there sides waiting to be put in  
place. Over to her left she saw bulldozers pushing the red dirt to the  
side. She could hear everyone busy at work.

Buffy was so mesmerized by the large facility she didn't notice that  
Xander had already left her just standing by the car and was currently  
speed walking towards the site.

"Oh!" Buffy had to almost jog to catch up to Xander who was now  
rounding a row of trailers, porter potties, and smaller buildings that  
looked like was where they stored some of the equipment. "Hey! Wait up  
speedy consalus! I have no clue where I'm going here."

"Oh that's right. Well, allow me to show you around the place" Xander  
said has he made no attempts to slow down his fast pace. "You are  
currently looking at the construction of the brand new Sunnydale mall.  
It will be the largest and most technologically advanced mall of all  
on this side of California."

"Wow. Really?" Buffy asked amazed as she tried to step as lightly as  
possible so she wouldn't get mud all over her brand new shoes. "How  
large?"

"Really large." He explained. "It will have three levels. The first  
level will have ice skating rings, a movie theater, gyms, a play  
ground for kids, and a resting area for all the tired shoppers. The  
second level will have every shop you could think of and then some.  
The third level will be the food court area and also house several  
fancy schmancy restaurants. From the third level you can take the walk  
way and go over to the hotel that will be connected to the mall. It  
will be a 5 star hotel that will have 15 stories over looking a small  
park on the east side."

"Holy crap!"

"Yup, that's exactly what I say every day when I pull up and first see  
this tremendous place" Xander smiled at her awed expression as she  
took in the expanse of the site. "And you know what the craziest part is?"

"That they are only using one level for shops instead of taking up  
vital space in the other two levels. Thus creating more room for even  
more shops that I could shop at?"

Xander turned his head and slit his eyes at her and tried his best not  
to smile. "Nooo, actually I was going to say that I was the head  
foreman of this mega-mall. Meaning I am the "in charge" guy. Who would  
have ever thought that Xander Harris, former Sunnydale flunkie, would  
be in charge of a multi-million dollar project that is expected to put  
Sunnydale back on the map?"

Buffy couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm. Xander always had the  
best look on his face when he talked shop. It was like all his  
excitement bubbled to the surface and threatened to over flow. It  
always made her wonder if this was what Xander looked like as a little  
boy on Christmas morning.

"Ok so where will this ultra-cool head foreman guy and his ultra-hip  
secretary be working at?"

Xander smiled back and tilted his head forward. "Over there"

Buffy looked around. They had already past all the other smaller  
buildings that might hold offices. Now they were standing in an open  
area that was covered by even redder mud if that was even possible. In  
the corner was a small ugly trailer that looked like it was ready to  
be considered condemned at any moment. That couldn't possibly be it,  
she thought. She wouldn't feel safe standing next to it much less  
working in it everyday.

"Where?" she said as she did a full circle while looking around.

"There." He pointed towards the trailer with his rolled up plans.

Buffy put her hand up to block the sun and tried to look around the  
trailer. "You mean there are more buildings behind that scary looking  
building?" she asked with a confused tone.

"No, I mean that scary looking building is our office".

"What!" Buffy whirled around and looked at him. She jacked her thumb  
back and pointed over her shoulder. "That thing? But its scary looking  
and…. it's a trailer!" Buffy slowly followed Xander but stopped right  
in front of the rickety stairs as Xander climbed them. "It looks like  
something even Dolly Parton would pass up on! Besides it looks really  
un-safe."

"What this old thing?" Xander said nonchalantly while unlocking the  
door and open it with a loud creak. "Naw they don't make them like  
Old Besty anymore." To accentuate his point he patted the wall beside  
the door and a piece of its siding fell off with a loud crash. "Oh  
watch out for that there" he said as if nothing happened. Buffy took a  
small step back.

Xander disappeared inside and Buffy was left to stand in front of the  
stairs to stare at the trailers puke green walls. Cracks and holes  
covered the trailer. There was only one window and it had an air  
conditioner half sitting, half hanging out of it. The wheels and  
concrete support blocks looked like they were put there back in the 50's.

"It looks like old Betsy's on her last leg and even it's about to give  
away." She grumbled as she cautiously started up the wooden stairs.

Once inside a wave of a mixture of moth balls and old wood sent hit  
her. The trailer wasn't very big. It had a small kitchen. An open part  
in the middle where two desks sat facing each other and at the end a  
small room that looked like held the filing cabinets and all the plans  
in and one small bathroom in the very back. Did she ever mention to  
Xander that she might be a little bit Closter phobic?

The walls were line with fake wood paneling and the floor was covered  
with an ugly yellow shaggy carpet that looked like it hadn't been  
vacuumed since the place was considered new. The only thing that could  
fit in the kitchen area was a small refrigerator, some cabinets, and a  
table, which set what she assumed, was the coffee maker.  
"Well Buffy this is it" Xander said as he was busily looking through  
files on his desk.

Buffy just stared at him from where she was still standing in the  
middle. She was a little afraid to make any sudden movements for the  
walls or floor might fall away.

"You mean your telling me you are building the most technological  
advance mall just outside that door and this is where you run things  
from? This is it? This death trap?"

Xander looked up from shoveling papers around. "Death Trap?  
Nooo…Hell, maybe, but no death trap. Just give it time and it will  
feel like home in no time!"

"Oh really? Is home supposed to smell like moth balls and rotting wood?"

"Here let me give you a tour and show you what all you will be doing."  
He said ignoring her last comment with a smile. "This is our lovely  
kitchen. It has three whole cabinets. If you want to, I'll share half  
of my shelf with you so you can bring snacks. Best friends benefits  
only." Xander said happily but Buffy didn't look impressed. So he  
continued on. "And that is our fridge, its kinda small but its freezes  
with the best of them. That room," he pointed to the small room ahead  
of him "is where we keep some of the files and plans." He walked two  
feet and turned back towards her. "That right there is your desk and  
right across from it is my desk! So its like Me offica, Su offica!"

Buffy just raised one of her eyebrows at him. Was that suppose to be  
Spanish?

"And back there is the bathroom. But the door doesn't lock and  
sometime gets jammed so you gotta watch that. And that concludes our  
tour. Any Questions?"

"Yeah, um, when do we get off again?"

"Moving right along then. This is your typewriter on your desk. You  
will have to type a lot of plans up because our printer doesn't do  
that on transfer paper."

Buffy just stayed planted in the middle of the room staring at her new  
work place as Xander moved around the office.

"I know the place is kinda small and your desk isn't anything to get  
excited about, but look at it this way, I am just right across from  
you so if you have any questions you can just ask. Also, there's  
always the bonus of never being lonely." Xander tried while giving  
her two thumbs up.

Buffy just blankly stared back at him.

"Why don't you come sit down and try it out, while I put these plans  
up?" Xander told her on his way to the filing room leaving Buffy to  
her own thoughts.

Buffy slowly inched her way to the desk. It was the classic old  
fashion iron desk that any other normal person wouldn't be able to  
move with out throwing one's back out. The office chair was just a  
plain kitchen table chair with an old cushion on the seat that had  
cotton coming out at the seams. Buffy slowly sat on the edge of the  
chair and kept her arms to herself being careful not to touch  
anything. Almost as if by touching something she would contract some  
kind of disease.

She leaned in closer to get a better look at the top of the desk.  
There was a typewriter on one side and some machine resembling a  
computer on the other. The computer, like everything else in her new  
hellhole, looked older than her. She was pretty sure this was the  
"original" computer.

There was a stack of folders and papers strewn all about on top of the  
desk. Great, not only is it a small space, but it's a cluttered up  
small space! Buffy thought to herself.

Buffy turned to look at the window behind her. On the bottom half of  
the window sat an old dusty air conditioner box that was missing some  
knobs and was leaning more towards its left side. It looked like it  
was going to fall out of the window any minute now. The rest of the  
window was boarded up with plywood blocking out any kind of view of  
the outside world.

"Buffy, I hate to run out on you so early on your first morning here,  
but I really have to go show these revised plans to some of my men  
before they start screwing up more stuff."

Buffy watched Xander gather up different rolled up papers on his desk  
across from her. From the looks of it Xander had the much better desk.  
It was a new mahogany desk. And behind it sat what only could be  
described as a captain's chair. An office chair to over shadow all  
other office chairs. It had the big cushion-y seats and the large arm  
rests. Covered in black shiny leather. It even looked like it had a  
massager built into it and leaned back in a reclined position. What  
was so special about him that he got to sit on the nice side?

"You're leaving already? Leaving me? Alone!" Buffy asked as she shot  
up panicked and fallowed him towards the door.

"Don't worry I will be back as soon as possible" He said as he was  
opening the door getting ready to step out, but Buffy stopped him by  
grabbing his arm and looking at him pleadingly.

"But I don't know what to do. I don't know where anything is and the  
only person I do know is you and your leaving!"

"Buff, I'm not going off the site I'm just going to section 14B to  
show the boys that the piping has to be rerouted in the ground works  
because the people up stairs are telling me that the zoning…."

"Xander, I lost you after you said Buff."

"Oh Sorry. Well don't worry like I said before, I'll be back as soon  
as possible. Until then why don't you get acquainted with the place  
and make yourself feel at home. Maybe organize your new desk the way  
you want it. Oh and make us some coffee because its probably going to  
be a long day."

"Organize and Coffee?" Buffy asked skeptically.

"Yup!" Xander yelled back finally stepping out.

"That's all you want me to do for right now?" Buffy asked again.

"Yup, I'll probably be back before you even get through!" Xander said  
cheerfully as he was closing the trailer door behind him leaving Buffy  
with her thoughts once more.

"Organize and Coffee." Buffy thought out loud. "Hmmph, how hard could  
that be?"

* * *

Okay so who knew coffee could be so complicated? How could anyone work  
with an evil coffee maker that was from ancient times? It wasn't her  
fault she couldn't get it to work properly. And besides how can one  
figure a coffee maker out if they are to busy choking on all the smoke  
that it had created? She was only doing the world a favor by  
accidentally slaying it. 

Buffy stood in the middle of the two desks facing each other sipping  
on her mocha from Starbucks. She looked down at her knee and examined  
the bluish purple bruise that was forming on her leg. She wondered if  
it would look bad to file an accident form on the first day?

The bruise was another event that was not her fault. She was just  
trying to organize her mess of a desk and decided to see what was in  
the drawers. Apparently the drawers were stuck and so she gave it a  
little extra slayer oomph to pry it open. That's all it needed. It  
came flying out with such force that it came completely out of the  
desk and slammed into the back wall behind her. Her knee just happened  
to get in the way of its flight. Iron desk drawers slamming into your  
leg was never a good feeling.

After hobbling around and using a few choice words to describe her new  
lovely office, she sat back down to cool off. She turned around to  
turn on the AC on, trying get some airflow going. She should have  
known that that would be a mistake.

After she turned the only knob left to turn the unit on, nothing  
happened. At first she didn't think it worked at all. But then it  
started making this low rumbling noise that kinda sounded like an old  
B52 plane warming up to take off. Then the thing started shaking all  
over and the rumbling noise got louder. Buffy wasn't sure if it was  
going to blow out air or take flight. Then it shook even harder and  
the last knob fell completely off. Buffy looked down at the knob and  
picked it up to exam it. She knew this couldn't be good. She noticed  
the sound of the unit was only getting louder and with the knob in her  
hand she knew she couldn't turn it off. Buffy tilted her head at the  
offending noise and looked closely at the unit. It sounded like it was  
building up getting ready too…

"Oh crap!" Before Buffy could jump up out of the way the unit went  
Poof! And sticky black stuff exploded in her face. Buffy yelped as she  
jumped up out of the chair.

So far, the first morning of her exciting new summer job was a pain  
and annoyance and it was only 10 o'clock. She still had the rest of  
the day left. As she sat down at Xander's desk, Buffy felt of her hair  
again trying see if it had any more funky black stuff in it. She had  
good reasons to be in Xander's desk. Evil coffee makers, clunky old  
desks, and loud smelly air conditioners were going to drive her crazy!  
She's been to crazy-ville and she wasn't planning on making any more  
stops there anytime soon!

Buffy looked up as Xander opened the office door and stepped in.

"See Buff that didn't take…." cough cough "Oh god what happened?"  
Xander squeaked out as he choked on the remaining smoke left in the room.

Buffy just stared at him from her new position in Xander's desk.

"Is something burning!" Xander asked as he covered his mouth and nose  
with his arm and quickly did a spin around looking for the source of  
all the smoke.

"Yeah the coffee maker." Buffy said nonchalantly and pointed towards  
the still smoking machine.

Xander turned around and looked at it with an astonished expression.

"How? What? How?"

"Well I did as you asked and tried to make coffee." Buffy paused not  
sure what else to say that wouldn't cause a bad reaction for almost  
burning his office down.

"And!"

"And… here's you a starbucks coffee?" Buffy asked meekly.

"At what point did it go from making coffee to black smoke stains on  
the ceiling?"  
Xander asked credulously while looking up at the ceiling.

"At about the point where it started sparking and smoking profusely. I  
don't know what happened! I just plugged it in and heard a loud pop."

"Did you check to see if it was turned off before you plugged it in?"

Buffy furrowed her brow and then looked up at Xander innocently. "How  
was I supposed to know it was going to do all that? I mean the thing  
looks like it's older than Giles!"

"Its been here since I was hired" Xander said an almost wistful tone  
while looking at the blackened coffee maker.

"Well it went down in a blaze of glory…and a few small flames." Buffy  
stated simply.

Xander turned back around and noticed that Buffy's desk, which she  
wasn't sitting in, was even more cluttered up than when he last left  
it. It had one of its drawers lying on top of it and what looked to be  
like a lot of his files and office supplies that use to be in the top  
drawer of his desk.

Xander pointed towards the desk and asked. "What's all this?"

"Well you know how you said I should make myself feel at home?"

"Yeaaah…" Xander said almost afraid to hear what she was about to say  
next.

"Well I did. Home is definitely on this side of the room."

Xander did not like her chipper tone one bit.

"Oh no no no. That's my desk and my side of the room." Jacking his  
finger over his shoulder pointing to her old side of the room. " And  
that." Xander stated firmly. "Is the secretary's desk. Where the  
secretary" He pointed back towards Buffy "should sit."

Buffy looked down and then back up at Xander and did her best hurt  
look she could come up with. She knew Xander's weaknesses. "But the  
air conditioner spits black stuff at me and makes weird noises. How am  
I suppose to hear the phones over all that?"

"Edna never complained about the air-conditioner!"

"That's probably because old Edna just couldn't hear at all."

"So I'm suppose to give up my new desk, because you don't like the  
atmosphere on one side of the room? That's ridiculous!" Xander  
exclaimed with his arms crossed over his chest not budging.

"And look the desk hurt me." Buffy pouted and said in an innocent tone  
as she showed him her bruised knee.

Xander bent slightly to look at her knee. He could see the nasty  
looking bruise on her leg. It must have hurt if it caused a bruise on  
the slayer. He looked back up at Buffy who was still giving him a  
pouty look.

He dropped his arms and turned around heading towards his new desk  
grumbling something about hiring best friends as secretaries.

Buffy's face lit up once she knew she was getting the new desk on the  
nice side of the room. She felt a little bad about outing Xander from  
his own desk; after all he was doing her a favor by hiring her.

"Did you know there was a starbucks right down on the corner?" Buffy  
said happily as she reached for his coffee on the desk. "Look Xand, I  
got you you're favorite when I went. One Caramel Mocha Espresso with  
an extra pump of Caramel. I'm the only other person who knows you like  
that extra pump." Buffy gave him a half smile while handing him the  
coffee.

Xander just reached over and took the coffee from her. He didn't want  
to say something that he might regret later. Besides he was still  
trying to get use to his new desk. Who can work sitting in a stiff  
kitchen chair?

After sipping on his coffee for a few moments he decided to try making  
the best of it. He tried to put the drawer on top of his desk back  
into place, but being it was so heavy and with the dent that Buffy  
somehow put in it, it made difficult to be put back in place. He tried  
easing it in there but it kept falling out. So he tried with a little  
more force. It still wouldn't budge.

"You want me to give it a try?" Buffy asked as she looked on from her  
new position behind her new desk.

"No!" Xander huffed out. "I'm good. You just stay right where you are  
and don't move."

"Are you sure cause you know lifting heavy stuff is my forte."

"Yup I'm sure." Xander grunted as he pushed with all his might on the  
aggravating drawer. Honestly, he was just a little worried about what  
else Buffy might damage by coming over and helping, but he wasn't  
about to tell her that.

He tried one more time by taking the drawer and slamming it back in.  
Finally with a loud screech the bent drawer slammed shut so hard that  
the desk moved a couple inches back. "There" Xander huffed out while  
sitting back up trying to catch his breath.

He tried wiggling the drawer to see if it would open up again. But no  
such luck. It was stuck again.

"I hope there wasn't anything important in there" Buffy said simply.  
Still looking on while sipping on her coffee.

"Yes, lets hope not. Why don't we move on to what you will be doing  
everyday as my secretary…"

"About this secretary business." Buffy interrupted him. "What are we  
stuck in the 50's? It sounds old fashion and sexist. You shouldn't  
call me your secretary, because I don't like it and it makes me look bad."

"Well what in the world do you want me to call you?" Xander asked  
astonished.

"What about something like…. your personal assistant! I can be like  
the head of personal assisting." Buffy said proudly.

"Head of personal assisting?" Xander asked amused. "What were you at  
the Double Meat Palace? Head of the deep fryer?" Xander laughed out  
loud but quickly covered it with a cough when he noticed Buffy's hurt  
look.

Ahem "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. It came out all wrong." Buffy  
was still giving him a hurt look and he couldn't stand it. "You know  
how my foot likes to live in my mouth."

"I wasn't just on the deep fryer…. I sometimes manned the cashiers  
machine." Buffy said still pouting. "Besides I thought we agreed to  
never mention that part of my life ever again."

"Yeah I know. I'm sorry, I forgot! But, hey, look I do like this  
coffee you got me. Its yummy and you're right, you know what I like  
best!" Xander smiled and tried to cheer her up by sipping on it. "Mmmm"

"It is good coffee" Buffy stated meekly, slowly getting over Xander's  
last shot at her.

"Umm hmm" Xander hummed as he gathered his files and started putting  
them in place on his desk. He noticed something under one of the files  
and picked up to look at it. "Is this some kind of air-conditioning  
knob?"

Buffy looked up suddenly and started sputtering. "Uh…yeah…Um…You  
see….It wasn't my fault…."

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

**Title: "Help Wanted"  
By: Lexie  
Summary: Xander needs a new secretary and Buffy just happens to be  
available. Chaos ensues.  
Disclaimer: I definitely don't own Buffy. If I did BX would have  
happened long long ago and would probably be married by now and there  
would have been at least two Xander's in every episode since there's  
twins that I could use. Two Xander's is always a good in my book. But  
anyways Fox, Mutant Enemy, UPN, and who ever else, owns everything  
Buffy related. Not me no matter how much I wish for two Xander's.  
Rating: PGish  
Category: Humor/Romance**

**This fic is dedicated to Shawn and Brooke.**

** A/N: Line Break means changing of POVs and/or scene change.  
**

**

* * *

"Help Wanted"

* * *

**

**A few weeks after Buffy's first day.**

Tonight would be a good night. No angry site  
inspectors calling to know why things were so behind.  
No typewriter's going haywire. No lost files to find.  
No possessed coffee makers. No office worries at all.  
All Xander wanted to do tonight was sit at home with  
Buffy and pull their regular Friday-nighters. A couch,  
a pile of junk food, a couple of cheesy movies, and  
just him and Buffy. That to him was the perfect way to  
end a hard week at work.

Buffy came into the living room with her hands filled  
with bags of chips, chocolate chip cookies, rocky road  
ice cream, and of course what every movie night needs  
extra-buttery popcorn. She laid them all out onto the  
coffee table in front of the couch and took a seat  
beside Xander, who was rubbing his hands together with  
excitement amid all the junk food goodness in front of  
him.

"So Xand, what will we be watching for our movie  
pleasures tonight?"

"Well sit back and prepare to Ohh' and Ahh' at my  
well thought out choices."

Xander grabbed the plastic movie rental bag from under  
the coffee table as Buffy sat back on the couch and  
waited to see Xander's fine movie pickings. She was  
always a little nervous during this time for never  
knowing what zany movie he would pull out of that bag.

"First to bat is a movie that is sure to leave us in a  
good mood and also has one of my hero's who I look up  
to daily."

Off of Buffy's raised eye brow and slightly confused  
look, Xander grinned and said, "Adam Sandler."

Buffy tossed her head back. "Oh great, don't you ever  
get tired of trying to imitate him?"

Xander scoffed at her. "I do not imitate… I project his  
witty personality."

Buffy giggled at his reasoning and with that Xander  
pulled out the movie, "50 First Dates."

"Oooohhh," Buffy bounced up and down in excitement. "I  
have been wanting to see that! Willow says it's really  
cute! I've heard good things."

"Yeah, see was that so bad?" Xander asked. "You get  
your cuteness and I get Adam Sandler funnies. I was  
thinking of both of us on that one!"

"Xander, I must say that one you did pretty  
good. I take back your title as King of awful cheesy  
movies."

"The second movie of the night is always a fun  
favorite." With that he whipped it out and held it up  
like a trophy. "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!"

"And the crown is graciously handed back," Buffy  
deadpanned.

"What? Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is a classic!"

"Do you hear the words coming out of your mouth? You  
just put Killer Tomatoes' and classic' in the same  
sentence!"

"Pfft, you just can't comprehend the classical wonder  
that is the tomatoes."

As he reached for the bag for the last movie he heard  
her mumble something about it being "classically  
stupid," but he didn't care. He knew the next movie  
would make her melt.

"The next movie will make you bow to my supreme movie  
picking skills."

"What? The Killer Tomatoes Eat France'?"

"No, that one was checked out. But they did have…" With  
that he whipped out the last movie.

Buffy gasped and sat up straighter. "Beaches!" She  
screeched. She immediately grabbed the movie and held  
it close to her chest as if it was the last precious  
thing in the world.

Xander smiled at her child like expression, as she  
looked the movie cover over.

"This is the best movie of all time!" she said  
excitedly. "Its my absolute favorite!"

"I know," Xander simply said. "So, do you wanna do the  
bowing thing now or later?"

"Um later," she said. After a moment of pause to  
reflect on the movie she said, "To bad Dawn thinks we  
aren't cool enough to hang out with us anymore. She  
would really love this."

"Yup, our little Dawnie has moved on to bigger and  
better things than us old fogies at home," Xander  
stated matter of factly.

"Yeah, moved on to raging teenage hormones and trying to  
be socialably superior." Buffy put the movie case down  
on the coffee table and sat back on the couch with her  
thoughts on her little sister. Her eyes were downcast  
towards the floor.

Xander could sense the slight change in Buffy's mood.  
She worried about Dawn a lot more these days. She  
never said much, but he could tell she would stay up  
worrying over her every time her little sister went  
out. Buffy being the Slayer knew the dangers this  
sleepy little town held with in its borders. Xander  
worried too. Growing up in Sunnydale put a whole new  
meaning on 'Nightmare on Elm Street.' He guessed  
worrying over Dawn just came natural to them. They  
never really discussed it, but they both knew each  
other's concerns. Wanting Buffy's mood to not switch  
into that funk mode for the night, Xander did what he  
does best.

"Ahhh, yes. Good old teenage hormones and social  
ranking." Xander said cheerily as he opened up a bag  
of cookies and popped one in his mouth. "Apparently, I  
do not rank high on the social chart of life. The  
other day at the grocery store I was almost pushed  
into the chips aisle when Brad Murphy,  
Mr.-Sunnydale-2005 walked by," Xander said in a snooty  
tone. "In fact, I'm pretty sure I was disowned and was  
just some crazy who kept putting things in her buggy."

Xander glanced sideways at Buffy to gauge her reaction,  
but she still looked lost in her thoughts. He hoped he  
could ease her worry in some way.

"She's going to be okay out there."

Buffy's eyes came up to meet Xanders. "Oh yeah?"

"Yup. You wanna know why?"

She raised her eyebrow for the second time that night  
and tilted her head to the side and waited for his  
reply. He sat back on the couch with her and leaned  
his shoulder into her and turned his head towards her.

"Because she learned from the best," he whispered.

Buffy couldn't control the small smile that his  
comment caused, nor could she control the warm fuzzy  
feelings she was having on the inside. Sometimes this  
man said the most beautiful things to her. She never  
saw them coming, but she would always remember the  
feelings that they left her with.

"Besides she's in the prime of her life. Let her have  
some fun now. Think back to being 17 and all the  
feelings you were having…." Xander paused a moment and  
pursed his lips as if he were really contemplating  
that. Thinking back to her turbulent past, she shifted  
back and looked at Xander as if he had gone crazy for  
bringing up her past 17-year-old self. "... On second  
thought, maybe we should go out there and drag her back  
here and super glue her door shut?"

"Ommff!" he grunted when a couch pillow smacked him in  
the chest. "Hey! Pillow fights aren't scheduled until  
later on tonight!" He laughed. "Okay, so how should  
our movie schedule go?"

"Hmm, well what if we start with your idol Adam  
Sandler; move right into the movie that beats all  
other movies, Beaches; and hopefully by that time we  
will both be render into unconscious-ness so that I  
don't have to suffer through the killer tomatoes,  
again?"

Xander nodded. "Sounds like a plan!"

"Xand?" Buffy asked innocently while Xander got up to  
put in the first movie in.

"Hmmm?"

"Are you going to cry during Beaches again?"

Xander immediately turned around with wide eyes.  
"I… uh… I never… that wasn't…" Xander was stumbling  
over his own words and Buffy was enjoying every second  
of it. "… I told you there was salt in my eyes from  
the popcorn."

"Whatever, Mr.-Sunnydale-1997!" Buffy giggled back.

Oh yeah, this was going to be a good night indeed.

* * *

Buffy grabbed another tissue from the tissue box on  
the coffee table. Why did this movie have to be so  
sad? Beaches was a great movie, but it always left her  
crying. She guessed it had that effect on a lot of  
people, but she couldn't help but think about how close  
the movie hit home for her in a lot of ways. Loosing  
her mother was the hardest thing this Slayer has ever  
had to live through. But she was thankful for best friends who helped  
her through that time, who stood by her through every  
battle, who never gave up on her, who helped her raise  
her little sister after her mother passed away, who  
were there for her day in and day out never thinking  
about leaving her, and who knew her favorite movie and  
the reasons why the movie was so special to her.

She looked over to that best friend to gauge his  
reaction to the movie. He was sharing the couch with  
her, sitting just to her right. He currently had  
his arm propped up on the armrest covering his mouth,  
obviously trying to hold back tears. She knew Xander  
was a manly man who could stand up to the darkest  
creatures, but put him up against a movie that he knew  
meant a lot to her and he didn't stand a chance. He  
must have noticed her gaze upon him because he tried  
to turn his head towards the ceiling.

"Damn popcorn salt!" he squeaked out.

Buffy couldn't help the giggle that bubbled up. She  
leaned heavily into his chest and hugged him. He put  
his arms around her and put his head on top of hers,  
relaxing in their embrace. She knew all about the  
inner strength this man possessed, but when he did simple things  
like watching the ultimate chick flick just because it  
was her favorite, that made him the best man she knew.  
That made him the best friend who not only stood by  
her side through every battle, but also the best  
friend who held her when she needed it the most. It  
made him her Xander.

So far they had been through two of the three movies  
they had. The first one, "50 First Dates", had flown  
by and Buffy seemed to really enjoy it. He enjoyed it  
too. No one can beat the Adam Sandler funnies, but to  
watch and listen to Buffy laugh at parts made it that  
much more special to him.

The second movie, "Beaches," was a tough one to get  
through to say the least. Not only was it a top  
ranking girly movie, but also it was the one which  
always made Buffy cry, and as much as his manlier side  
refused to admit it, it always left him in tears too.  
It always started when Buffy tears started falling and  
he knew he was a goner for sure then. He always knew  
when Buffy was thinking of her mother and knew how  
much this movie brought back memories of her. He  
missed Joyce too. He always liked her because she was  
genuinly nice person. She was the one who raised Buffy  
and Dawn into the women that they are today. He missed  
coming over for her cooking. He missed her asking him  
all about his job. He missed her caring. But mostly, he  
missed her for Buffy. So that's why now when memories  
of the past brought tears to Buffy's eyes and all she  
needed was for someone to hold her, he would always be  
the man to do that for her.

Now that strolling down teary memory lane was over, it  
was time for his favorite cheesy movie, "Attack of the  
Killer Tomatoes." Oh how Buffy hated that movie and  
how he loved it just the same. His philosophy was  
since finding out about all the scary things in the  
world were real, why not admire the simplistic and  
cheesy atmosphere of the movie to get away from all  
the other real stuff?

Buffy was always a trooper during the movie. Sure she  
whined and complained all throughout. Whining about  
the special effects, acting, and storyline. And always  
wondering how in the world a tomato could kill anyone?  
She managed to throw in slaying jokes about the  
killer tomatoes. But as many times as they have  
watched the B grade movie, she always watched it from  
beginning credits to ending credits with him. Tough  
it out for him, she promised to herself.

Although looking at her tonight, she doesn't look like  
she will make it through this time. It seems the only  
thing she's fighting tonight is sleep. She's  
currently sitting right next to him with heavy eyes.  
He couldn't blame her, he was fighting his own battle  
with drowsiness. It had been another long and hard  
week at the office and he just didn't have it in him  
anymore to stay up late. Another yawn slipped from him  
and Buffy slouched down, leaning more towards him and  
rested her head on his shoulder. He put his head back  
on top of Buffy's and both relaxed while they watched  
another Tomato eat someone.

"Dawn will be home soon," she yawned out.

"Mmm Hmm."

"One of us should probably stay up for her."

"Mmm Hmm." It was his turn to yawn out his answer "I'll  
be right on that."

"Me too," she added quietly, as sleep was quickly  
approaching her.

If he could just rest his eyes just for a few minutes  
he would be good, then he could wait up for Dawn. The  
last thing he remembers is listening to Buffy's evened  
out breathing as she slept on his shoulder.

* * *

Dawn quietly closed the door behind her. She was only  
fifty minutes late so she knew her sister and Xander were  
bound to be waiting up for her. Xander out of worry,  
and Buffy out of the need to yell at her for it. She  
knew Buffy was worried too, but the yelling part nixed  
out her care.

She heard the TV on in the living room and knew that  
must be where they were waiting for her. She could  
either go in there and face the firing squad now or  
she could sneak upstairs and put off the yelling match  
for a later time. After a long night of fighting with  
her best friend Kit over a guy named Mark, she just  
didn't feel like facing her sister's wrath tonight.

So she tiptoed towards the stairs as quietly as she  
could. She was quite proud of her stealthy ways as she  
approached the stairs. She was almost past the  
living room and she had not heard her sister yell out  
yet. She was almost home free. All she needed to do was  
take a quick glance into the living room to make sure  
her sister wasn't sitting there watching her sneak by.  
That sounded something like a Slayer would do. Just  
when she thought she had mastered the art of sneaking  
in, her sister would catch her. She slowly turned  
towards the room with butterflies in her stomach. She  
prepared for the worst, but what she got was much more  
shocking.

Was that Buffy snoring while lying on top of an  
outstretched Xander on the couch? Did somebody slip  
something into her drink at the Bronze so that now she  
was delusional in seeing her sister pulling some  
serious snuggles with her best friend? How did this  
come to be? She glanced at the TV, which looked like a  
movie was coming to the end.

"Ooo, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes," she noted while  
smiling at the TV. She and Xander both loved that  
movie. It was so cheesy it was funny; it was just an  
added bonus to torture Buffy with it.

She glanced back at her sister and Xander who were  
both still oblivious to what was happening. She took in their  
relaxed states. Xander was fully lying on the couch  
and Buffy was laying half way on top of him while her  
head fitted just perfectly in the nook of his neck.  
Xander had one arm splayed over her back, holding her  
to his chest securely, while the other rested lightly  
on her arms that were hugging his chest. Both had the  
most peaceful look on their faces. In fact, she hadn't  
heard Buffy snore like that since she was a young  
child, when she would slip into her older sisters room  
to sleep at night. Xander also seemed to be in a deep  
sleep.

All in all, they looked really cute on the couch. Not  
worrying at all over her being late. Dawn considered  
playing the hurt card that they didn't care enough to  
see if she made it in or not. But it suddenly hit Dawn  
that this was going to work out perfect for her.

This was her perfect escape. She could sneak up to her  
room and go to bed. Buffy and Xander couldn't say  
anything to her in the morning because all Dawn had to  
do was mention that she came in on time, but she just  
didn't want to wake the snuggling love birds on the  
couch. That was a sure way to send both Buffy and  
Xander into a sputtering panic with the implications  
of their little sleep fest held. Throwing all excusing  
off of her and right onto them. An evil smile came  
over Dawn's features as she turned to quietly bound up  
the stairs.

**

* * *

The next morning.

* * *

**

The first thing Xander thought of when waking up was  
the thought of how warm and comfortable he felt with  
his Buffy blanket. As the familair sounds of early morning  
to slowly come to him, he didn't think much on what the  
meaning of that thought held. He simply rubbed Buffy's  
back while slept, and was slowly floating away.

The first thing Buffy thought of when waking up was  
how nice Xander smelled. He always smelled sweet and  
manly at the same time. It was a uniquely Xander-scent. She  
could hear the light thump of his heart and felt the  
smooth grazing of his hand as it warmed her lower back. It  
made Buffy want to snuggle deeper into this warm world  
and to never leave it.

Buffy let out a long sigh as she stretched her hand  
along his torso.

"Hhhmmm… Xannn…" Buffy's thoughts suddenly struck her,  
and when she realized their meaning; her eyes snapped open  
and her head popped up off his chest. "... der!"

Xander's eyes snapped open as well and he gave Buffy  
the deer caught in the headlights look.

"Buffy!" he screeched out.

For a few moments neither knew what to do. To many  
thoughts were flying through their heads to process  
actual movements. They both stared at each other not  
knowing what to say to make this moment less awkward.

"Morning," Buffy squeeked out.

"Morning," Xander repeated. not knowing what else to say or  
do. Both just continued to stare at each other. apparently it was  
to early in the morning for either's mind and body work at the same  
time.

"Mooornningg!" Dawn shouted cheerfully to them in a singsong voice  
as she skipped to the kitchen from the stairs.

Both Xander and Buffy jumped up off the couch at the  
sound of Dawn's cheerful voice. Buffy going one-way  
and Xander going the other way.

"I'm up!" Xander yelled out.

"Nothing!" Buffy yelled at the same time. She didn't  
know why she yelled that, but it seemed appropriate at  
the time.

Dawn just smiled as she continued on her way to the  
kitchen.

* * *


	4. Chapter 4

**Title: "Help Wanted"  
By: Lexie  
Summary: Xander needs a new secretary and Buffy just happens to be  
available. Chaos ensues.  
Disclaimer: I definitely don't own Buffy. If I did BX would have  
happened long long ago and would probably be married by now and there  
would have been at least two Xander's in every episode since there's  
twins that I could use. Two Xander's is always a good in my book. But  
anyways Fox, Mutant Enemy, UPN, and who ever else, owns everything  
Buffy related. Not me no matter how much I wish for two Xander's.  
Rating: PGish  
Category: Humor/Romance**

**This fic is dedicated to Shawn and Brooke.**

**A/N: Line break means changing POVs and/or scenes changing. **

**

* * *

"Help Wanted"

* * *

**

**A few weeks later.**

Xander unlocked the front door and was about to step  
in, but Buffy shoved past him before he could even take  
the step in.

"Move it slow poke Oprah's on!" she blurted as she  
hastily went by. Xander just sighed and decided to  
just concentrate on being happy on finally being home.  
It always amazed him how Buffy could be so perky and  
full of energy after an exhausting day at work. Then  
he would remember her superhero powers that gave her  
the ability to lift an iron office desk over her head  
and never once become fatigued from it. He knew because  
he had seen her do it when she got bored at work one  
day and decided to play "Let's see what Buffy can  
lift" as she cheerily explained it to him. That one  
was hard to explain to some of his men who happened to  
walk in on her heavy lifting that day. Of course, then  
he would remember the reason why he always came home  
dead tired. He was too busy doing his job and Buffy's  
job to play games of testing the slayer's abilities in  
an office environment.

Xander threw his keys on the table beside the front  
door and took his coat off as he stepped into the  
living room to see what Buffy and Dawn were doing now.  
They were both heavily engrossed into Oprah, who was  
giving some tearful speech on TV. Dawn was sitting in  
the recliner and looked on the verge of tears herself.  
Buffy was sitting Indian style in the middle of the  
couch trying to catch up on what she had missed so far  
of the show.

As he sat down beside Buffy on the couch he thought  
about how much he loathed Oprah. Because of this woman  
and her show, Buffy would rush him to finish up his  
work and then persisted to badger him to hurry up all  
the way home because her show was on. Not only was  
it bad enough that Buffy was obsessed with the show,  
but Dawn was right there with her sister in their  
annoying love for the rich woman's gab fest.

"Oh, is this the one where they show the life  
struggles of little people?" Buffy asked Dawn while  
excitedly pointing towards the TV screen.

"Nope, it's the follow-up to that one," Dawn sniffled  
out.

"Ohhh a follow-up!" Buffy gasped out in awe.

Xander just looked between the two teary eyed girls  
and rolled his eyes. Why couldn't Buffy be this  
inspired to do actual work at work? It had only been a  
couple of weeks since he hired Buffy on, but already  
she had turned his office into chaos.

So far she had jammed the copier machine so badly that  
they had to call in a repair man, destroyed two coffee  
makers, re-filed all of his important files so well he  
still couldn't find most of them, and couldn't type to  
save her life. This was the girl who had averted  
several apocalypses and yet if the world depended on  
her slow chicken-pecking typing skills then the world  
would surely be going to hell in flames.

At that moment he heard his stomach growl and it  
reminded him how hungry he was.  
"Who wants Chinese food?" Xander announced to both  
girls who seemed to be entranced by the TV screen.

"Shhhhhh! TV Talking. Not now," Buffy said, trying to  
shoo his questioning away with her hand with out even  
looking away from the TV set.

Oh how Xander hated Oprah with a firey passion. "Fine!  
Chinese it is!" Xander huffed out as he jumped up to  
get the phone to call China-Town, who had the best  
Chinese food in town and who delivered it under forty-five  
minutes or it was free.

"Stupid zombie creating talk show host," he mumbled under his breath  
on his way out of the room. If he wasn't so starved and  
verging on the edge of food malnourishment he might  
have a little patience for the two zombie like girls.  
However, today he skipped lunch because he was to busy  
trying to save a supply order form from one of the  
many typing disasters that Buffy had made in her time  
as his secretary or in fancier Buffy-terminology "Head  
of personal assisting." As he dialed the number to the  
restaurant, he thought back to the typing fiasco of  
earlier that day.

* * *

**Flashback to earlier that day.

* * *

**

"Okay Buffy, here's a really simple project for you,"  
Xander announced as he led Buffy to the typewriter on  
his desk.

"Are you trying to say I'm not qualified for harder  
projects? Are you trying to tell me something about my  
intelligence?" Buffy asked in an accusatory tone.

Xander's eyes widen. He could see where this topic was  
going and it would lead no where but him getting himself  
into trouble and having to buy her something to make  
up for it. "No, no, no. Of course not. You know you're  
my favorite slayer-slash-secretary…. I mean personal  
assistant!" he corrected quickly. "I just thought you  
might like a break from looking at all those magazines  
of yours."

"Well one of those magazines was a beanie baby  
magazine which I got out of your room, so technically I  
guess that would make it your magazine," she added  
innocently, but had a hint of a devilish smile on her  
face.

"Oh... and, Um, I think Andrew left that last time he  
visited. I don't know how it got into my room! But  
lets focus on the task at hand for the moment," Xander  
stated quickly as he tried to recover from the  
embarrassing magazine subject. "All you have to do is  
type up a simple supply form. I've already done the  
hardest part for you and that was looking up all the  
supply codes for the products we are going to buy. All  
you have to do is type the product name where it says  
"type product here" and the product number code under  
its place. Then type how much the product will cost  
and add up the sum at the end. Sound good?"

"Yeah sure," Buffy shrugged as if there was nothing to  
it and took the forms from his hands.

"Okay, so let me show you how to set the tabs. It can  
be kinda tricky sometimes when you…."

"Xand, I got it. You said it yourself a simple  
project." Off his look of worry Buffy added, "A  
trained monkey could do this."

With that Buffy sat down and started placing the first  
form into the typewriter getting ready to get started.  
Xander thought about some of Buffy other projects that  
had gone terribly wrong. Maybe hiring a trained monkey  
would have been better, he considered. As he watched  
Buffy looking on each side of the typewriter and then  
lifting it up with a confused expression, he knew a  
trained monkey wouldn't be nearly as amusing as Buffy  
was. Plus, she was a lot cuter.

Finally Buffy looked up with an innocent expression on  
her face. "So where's the 'On' button again?

**

* * *

Two hours later.

* * *

**

Xander sat in front of the typewriter trying do  
decipher if the word on the form was suppose to be  
"Pipe Primer" or some form of alien jargon from the  
looks of it. He really wasn't sure what it was because  
all of the smeared white out on it made it hard to  
tell. He was pretty sure though that Pipe Primer  
didn't have the letters z' g' or the number 7 in it.

How could one girl mess up so badly on a simple task  
like this? He should have known to worry more when  
Buffy asked him where the backspace button was on the  
typewriter. That should have sounded the warning bells  
off in his head. But nooo, he was to worried with  
going over the plans he stayed up all night drawing the  
night before. He would have done it yesterday at work  
but then he was to busy trying to show Buffy how to  
work the copying machine and then too busy trying to  
explain to the copying machine repair man how a whole  
side of the copier just fell off! It really was  
amazing how easily those things could be ripped off;  
of course this was a frustrated slayer doing the  
ripping, but still cool non-the-less to see done. And  
it was funny watching Buffy trying to fix it herself  
while failing miserably. Her expression when she turned  
around to try and explain what happened to him was a  
classic Buffy "uh oh" face. To bad that face didn't  
work on the repairman or the people at the Johnston  
and Johnston head office when he called to tell them  
to order a new copying machine.

The head office was one place he hated calling. It  
reminded him how much stress he was under because this  
project. Sure he had been in charge of lots of  
projects over his fast rising career in construction.  
But this one was not only a really important and huge  
project of Johnston and Johnston Co. to have, but it  
was also the biggest thing Sunnydale had seen since  
Sunnydale High had been re-built. This new mall was  
very important to the business commerce of Sunnydale  
and was not to be taken lightly. However, what really  
stressed him out were the higher ups in J&J that were  
constantly breathing down his neck about every little  
thing about this project. Things like designs,  
inventory, progress reports, employer fulfillment,  
equipment performance, and the most dreaded and most  
hated, deadlines. All that was stressful enough for  
simple projects in the past, but add that and having  
the president of J&J, Mr. Allen Johnston himself,  
doing surprise drop bys to see how things were going  
made things ten times more stressful. Allen Johnston  
was one of those head honcho's that you only saw when  
you went to those yearly corporate meetings and that's  
it. Xander had only met him once or twice and even  
then the guy had made him nervous by just being in  
the same room with him. But since landing the  
multi-million dollar deal, Mr. Johnston had made it  
his personal business to oversee the construction of  
the important development. Xander was pretty sure he  
could name his newly forming ulcer "Sunnydale  
Millennium Mall."

"Or maybe I should name it Buffy Summers," he poindered to  
himself as he squinted at the messy form.

Xander loosened his tie one more notch as he turned  
the AC on full blast. He wasn't really sure if the old  
contraption produced more air or rather just made  
louder noises to make it sound like it was. However,  
anything to make him think he was alleviating the  
suffocating heat of the California summer was a  
Godsend to Xander. To bad it was so loud he couldn't  
even hear himself think.

He felt his stomach rumble and thought about how he  
was left here in the hot sticky trailer to try and  
save the supply form all alone. Buffy was off enjoying  
lunch. She had offered to stay and try to help, but  
Xander thought he would be more productive by himself.  
But now he wasn't so sure that was such a good idea.

"What is PBS Pipe?" he asked out loud to no one in  
particular. Before he could figure out the wonder of  
Buffy's mess-ups some of the men of the construction  
site strolled into the office. They started saying  
something to him, but all Xander could hear was muffled  
voices. Xander held up a hand to silence them as he  
turned around and hit the AC with his other hand and  
the offending noise died down.

"Now try again," Xander told them from his position  
behind the type writer.

"So Harris, how did you land such a hot babe as a  
secretary?" Barney asked in a typical male chauvinist  
tone. Barney was one of those typical hunky  
construction guys that you always saw on TV calling  
out catcalls to anything walking by in a skirt. He may  
have been a bit of a womanizer, but he was a damn good  
weilder and that's all that mattered to Xander.

Some of the other men nodded and muttered something  
about her legs and boobs. Xander tried to ignore those  
parts.

"Well, her name is Buffy. And she is only here for the  
summer. After that I will find a permanent replacement  
for Edna."

"Whatever man. All I know is she is waaaay easier on  
the eyes than your last secretary." Another  
construction worker announced. Xander didn't know his  
name but made himself a mental note to find out later.

"I know what else she will be easier on," Barney  
arrogantly declared as the other men chuckled at his  
barb. Xander gritted his teeth.

Xander looked to Jack who was an older guy in his 40s  
and one of his best men on the site. He could trust  
Jack. He was a hard worker and one who always got the  
job done. Plus, he had a wife. "Yeah… what were you  
guys in here for again?"

Before he could answer Barney butted in. "So tell us  
Harris, have you bagged the secretary yet?"

Xander huffed and glared at the large burly man in  
front of him. "Excuse me?"

"Oh you know, has she performed all her secretary  
duties?" He sneered implying secretary duties as  
something else that had nothing do with office work.  
"Maybe performed some of those duties on that desk  
over there…."

"Buffy is here as a favor to me until I can find a  
replacement for Edna. She's just a friend. A close  
friend." Xander made sure he made that last point a  
strong one. He didn't want the other men on the  
construction site to get some weird kinky ideas about  
Buffy as his secretary. But with Barney leading the  
pack he was sure it was too late. That's why he wanted  
to emphasize the "close" friends part. He also didn't  
want some sleazy muscle head sexually harassing Buffy.  
She didn't need that. It was one thing for Xander to  
tease her every once in a while to make her blush. It  
was another thing to have other strange men doing it  
to make Xander himself blush.

"How is section 17 coming along?" Xander questioned, trying  
desperately to change the subject.

"Its almost done. We actually came in here to get…"  
Jack had taken Xander's hint of a change in subject  
and was trying to comply when Barney butted in once  
again.

"So if she's your secretary than why are you behind  
the type writer?"

Xander looked down at the supply form and looked back  
up at the group of men who were awaiting his  
explanation for why he was playing secretary. Great,  
that's all he needed was his men to question his  
authority. "Well I just decided to type this supply  
form up so I could get it off in the mail ASAP. You  
know how I like to make sure things get done right  
around here."

"Mmmhmmm, so is that why you make the coffee in the  
mornings?" Barney challenged.

Xander nervously laughed. "I don't make the coffee  
every morning." They didn't have to know about the  
small fires Buffy had started when she tried. "I just  
try to get the morning off sooner sometimes by making  
the coffee or by going out and getting coffee. You  
know you can't beat Starbucks coffee."

Barney looked like he was about to say something else  
condescending, but halted when Buffy threw open the  
door and stepped in.

"Xander, I brought you back a jello instead of yogurt  
because I know what happens with your tummy when…."  
Buffy paused at the crowd of men in the small trailer.  
"Oh hello. I didn't realize we had company."

All the men just stood and stared with their mouths  
slightly ajar. Buffy just smiled and flipped her hair  
back.

Great just great, Xander thought as he watched the  
interaction. Just when he thought things couldn't get  
any worse.

**

* * *

End of Flashback.

* * *

**

Buffy and Dawn walked into the kitchen sniffling and  
drying up tears with their tissues.

"Was that not sweet how Billy asked Wendy to marry  
him?" Dawn sniffled out to Buffy.

Xander was now in the kitchen getting out the plates  
so he could eat. The chineese food had arrived and was  
waiting on the table for him to devour. All he wanted  
to do was eat in peace

"Yeah, I know. That was the sweetest wedding ever.  
They're very lucky people to have Oprah do all that for  
them." Buffy pouted as she threw her old tissue away  
in the garbage.

The more Xander thought about work, or more  
importantly Buffy at work, the more his blood boiled.  
He shouldn't be the secretary. He was the boss. He had  
respect and authority over his men before she came  
along.

But now all he heard was her orders. Hey, Xander make  
some coffee. Hey, Xander go get this. Hey, Xander  
trade desks with me. Hey, Xander fix the computer.  
Hey, Xander do all the office work while I sit and  
file my nails! Okay, so she didn't say the last one  
but she should cause that's what she does!

"Hey, Xander don't forget to take out the trash  
tonight," Buffy simply ordered.

"Stop ordering me around!" Xander unexpectedly  
shouted. Maybe he shouldn't have yelled that.

Buffy just held her hands up in surrender pose.  
"Sor-ry! I was just simply reminding you of your  
chore. You're the one that wanted to have that chore  
because you said it didn't involve commode cleaning  
brushes."

"Oh yeah. Well I'll take the trash out when I'm good  
and ready!" Oh no, she wasn't going to turn this  
around on him and make him look bad.

"What are you PMSing?" Buffy asked as she crossed her  
arms.

Dawn giggled at her sister's PMS call. Xander suddenly  
turned towards the younger Summers and she quickly  
shut up. Xander looked like fumes were about to come  
out of his ears and Buffy was in her crossed arms  
slayer pose. Well this should be interesting, Dawn  
thought as she sat down on a stool behind the counter.

"Ha! Me PMSing? Me?" Xander laughed bitterly. "Who can  
tell who's PMSing when all you hear is you bossing  
everyone around!"

"Fine! I'll take out the trash tonight! Don't have a  
hissy fit over it."

"Yeah Buff, why don't you do that. Because lifting  
heavy things is your forte isn't it?" Xander taunted  
sneerly.

Oh that was it. Buffy was fuming now. "What was that  
suppose to mean?" she asked him in a not so nice  
tone.

"Oh, I don't know Buffy. Is making coffee your forte?  
Hmm? Or making copies? Or maybe typing!"

"Okay so maybe I'm not going to win any secretary of  
the month awards any time soon. But its not because I  
don't try! Maybe just maybe it has something to do  
with the person supervising? Ever think of that, Xand?"

Dawn sat there and watched as she started helping  
herself to some of the Chinese food in front of her.  
Who knew she would get dinner and a show tonight?

"Hey Xand, you can't say I didn't try to warn you  
about technologically confused Buffy!" Dawn chimed in  
while trying to hold back her laughter.

"Hey!" Buffy exclaimed. "Who brings home the bread in  
this house? I don't see you doing it!"

Dawn looked at her as she was putting an egg roll on  
her plate. "What you mean this Chinese food? You  
didn't bring this home. Xander did." Dawn fired back.  
She knew she had her sister then.

Buffy glared at her little sister. "Don't make me cook  
again!"

Dawn's smile dropped and she turned to Xander. "Sorry,  
Xand you're on your own now!" With that Dawn got up  
and took her plate of food to the living room.

"Don't use your cooking against poor little Dawnie!"

"Poor little Dawnie can save herself next time some  
Hell-God wants to use the key to bring hell on earth!"  
Buffy shouted loud enough for Dawn to hear. She knew  
her little sister wouldn't take it seriously, because  
she really didn't mean it. But she had to have  
something it wasn't fair them to double-team her. She  
was the slayer damn it!

"Yes, because you'll probably be to busy slaying coffee  
and copying machines!" Xander smiled in her face when  
she turned back towards him. She cocked her head to  
the side and walked to the opposite side of the  
counter that Xander was on and stood right in front of  
him. The only thing separating them was the counter  
top.

"Aw, Xander. What are you jealous?" She stuck her lip  
out to mock him more.

"Jealous? Of what? Buff, I know how to type," Xander  
sneered as he put his hands on the counter and lent  
forward putting himself even closer to Buffy.

"Not that!" Buffy snapped. "Of all the boys at work, I  
may not be secretary of the month by your standards  
but I bet I am by theirs," Buffy fired back almost  
innocently and yet so dangerously. She knew that it  
would get to him. She also leaned forward on the  
counter top and was face to face with Xander.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure you'll just dazzle them with all of  
your secretary skills to bad most of the have pulses."  
Xander accused in a low tone.

Buffy and Xander were having an intense stare down. It  
was just a matter of who would look away first? They  
were only inches away from each other.

Buffy felt a blush creep up her neck and she wondered  
when did it get so hot in the kitchen. Xander was  
driving her crazy and she didn't know rather if she  
wanted to scream at him more or…

Xander couldn't move. He couldn't think. He was inches  
away from Buffy's face and couldn't for the life of  
him look away. He could feel her breath on his face.  
Was she breathing as hard as he was? Did he want to  
yell at her more or…

Buffy and Xander both suddenly pulled away. Buffy  
turned around and Xander stepped backwards.

"Yeah, well, since you're so good at typing why don't you  
do it all on your own from now on!" Buffy yelled as  
she stomped out of the kitchen. She had to get out of  
there. It was way to hot and she wasn't sure what was  
happening. She couldn't think clearly anymore and  
couldn't control the argument. She didn't like that  
one bit. She was flustered as she heavily stomped up  
the stairs to her room.

"Yeah, well, I do that now, cause news flash its PVC  
Pipe not PBS Pipe! We work for a construction site  
not a television site!" He wasn't sure if Buffy heard  
the second part because he heard her door slam  
somewhere in the middle. He wasn't even sure what he  
had said himself. He still wasn't thinking clearly.  
Xander didn't know what to do now. So he grabbed the  
garbage up and went out back slamming the door along  
the way.

Both Xander and Buffy stood alone on each side of  
their doors and thought What just happened?

* * *


	5. Chapter 5

**Title: "Help Wanted"  
By: Lexie  
Summary: Xander needs a new secretary and Buffy just happens to be  
available. Chaos ensues.  
Disclaimer: I definitely don't own Buffy. If I did BX would have  
happened long long ago and would probably be married by now and there  
would have been at least two Xander's in every episode since there's  
twins that I could use. Two Xander's is always a good in my book. But  
anyways Fox, Mutant Enemy, UPN, and who ever else, owns everything  
Buffy related. Not me no matter how much I wish for two Xander's.  
Rating: PGish  
Category: Humor/Romance**

**This fic is dedicated to Shawn and Brooke.**

**A/N: Line break means chaning of POVs and/or scene changes. **

**

* * *

"Help Wanted"

* * *

**

**Next morning**

Buffy closed her bedroom door behind her as she walked  
down the hall towards the stairs. She paused briefly  
at Xander's door and glanced in at the room from the  
doorway. From the empty room and the unmade bed, Buffy  
figured that meant that Xander was probably already up  
and was downstairs eating breakfast.

She thought back to the day before and their argument  
that they shared in the kitchen. She wasn't even  
exactly sure what the argument was all about, but  
nonetheless she felt a little bit guilty about it. She  
knew Xander had made some pot shots about her skills  
as his personal assistant and that was what originally  
started the whole ordeal. Really though, the male  
Scooby was grumpy all yesterday afternoon and it just  
happened to boil over that evening in the kitchen.

Buffy knew why Xander had been grumpy all after noon  
and it had nothing to do with her typing skills. Okay,  
maybe her typing skills hadn't really helped his  
situation out, but it wasn't the sole reason for why  
he was stressing out over everything. Lately, Xander  
had been driving himself crazy with the pressures of  
work. Buffy also knew how important this construction  
project was to not only the company but also for  
Xander's career as a project manger. Xander had told  
her about how the big wheels of the company were  
keeping a close eye on this project. So close that he  
felt they were looking over his shoulder every time he  
did anything. So Xander was working over time in the  
stressing out department. He personally made sure  
everything was going perfect. He was double-checking  
over every little detail. Sometimes he was staying up  
all hours of the night to draw up plans or to go over  
previous plans. He inspected every inch of the site  
and initialed off on every form made on the  
construction of the new mall. Xander was well on the  
way to giving himself an ulcer. So it was really no  
wonder that Xander was snappy yesterday.

Buffy yawned as she stepped off the last step and  
headed towards the kitchen. She had stayed awake  
thinking about Xander and their argument for most of  
the night. At first she was mad and frustrated over it  
all. She had even gone to bed early because she didn't  
want to have to go down and face him just yet. But  
after lying there wide awake for hours she had had  
time to think over everything. And that's when the  
guilt trip had set in and the worrying of Xander  
stressing out too much over work. So it was another  
sleepless night in Sunnydale for this slayer.

Buffy stopped at the doorway of the kitchen and looked  
at the sight before her. There sat Xander Harris on a  
stool in the middle of island in the kitchen. Buffy  
took in his appearance. He was still wearing some gray  
sweat pants and an old Sunnydale high school shirt.  
His hair was going every which away as if he had just  
stepped out of bed himself. He was propping his head  
up by one arm while he looked down into what looked  
like a bowl of Cocoa Puffs. The expression on his  
face made him look like he was still half asleep.  
Looks like Buffy wasn't the only one who lost some  
shut eye over their confrontation. Buffy sighed at the  
sight of a lost looking Xander looking down into his  
bowl.

Upon hearing her sigh Xander looked up at her in  
doorway. Their eyes connected immediately. How could  
Buffy stay mad at a scruffy looking Xander? She  
could never stay mad at Xander for very long,  
especially when he looked at her like he was now. From  
his wild hair and scruffy appearance to his tired  
curious look on his face. She realized that he was  
waiting for her. Waiting for her because he felt just  
as bad about the little fight as she did. This fight  
was in no way as big as some of their other fights in  
the past, but still they both lost sleep over them now.  
Buffy couldn't help the small smile that formed on her  
face when standing there looking at Xander.

Xander just stared at Buffy. When he first looked up  
and saw her there he thought for maybe a spilt second  
his heart had stopped and his breath had got caught in  
his throat. Buffy was just standing there looking at  
him. She was doing that half smile thing which always  
caused the heart stopping, breath-catching reaction  
for him; but add to the fact that she still had her  
rubber ducky PJs on and her hair was slightly messy,  
which some how always made her look that much more  
beautiful, and Xander was pretty sure he had lost the  
ability to blink.

Xander watched her as she said nothing but headed over  
to the coffee maker and pored herself a cup. She  
looked just as exhausted as he was. Did that mean she  
had stayed awake all night thinking about their  
argument like he had? Xander felt a pang of guilt for  
making her loose sleep over his out burst of  
frustrations. Buffy wasn't the problem at work. Sure  
she wasn't the best secretary in the world in fact she  
might be in the running in worst secretary category.  
However, even though she might drive him a little  
crazy with her skills or lack of, he still enjoyed  
every minute of her being there. It was almost like  
the old days. Back when the Scooby's hung out in the  
library researching the latest monster of the week. A  
time in which the world still seemed innocent barring  
the vampires, demons, apocalypses, prophesies, and  
curses of course.

When Buffy wasn't trying to burn down the office they  
were laughing and joking around. They talked a lot  
about everything. From how much they missed Willow and  
Giles to how come when commercials come on TV they  
always seemed to be two times louder than the show that  
they were originally watching. Buffy sometimes even  
made them both lunches and did what she said she would  
and put them in little brown papers bags with their  
names doodled all over them. Xander of course had to  
hide the decorated bag from his other co-workers  
because seeing his name in bubble letters with little  
hearts and balloons on it was never good for  
maintaining his authoritive control. When Buffy made  
their lunches they always ended up trading sandwiches  
and eating each other's chips. Buffy even knew to put  
an extra Twinkie in his bag, which Xander would always  
split in half, and share with Buffy. She had to feel  
special for that because Xander didn't just do that  
for anyone.

Sometimes they would talk and they would surprise  
each other with facts about themselves that the other  
did not know. One day Buffy accidentally let it slip  
about her secret fascination in the show Babylon 5.  
Xander was shocked and ecstatic upon hearing that news  
since it was one of his favorite shows of all time. Of  
course, Buffy threatened that if he ever told anyone,  
especially Andrew, of her little secret obsession of  
the show, she would be sure to slay him in such a way  
that they would write about it for years to come in  
the watcher books. Xander had gulped and pinky swore  
he would never utter a single word about her little  
secrete to anyone. And then they had a rousing  
discussion on one of Xander's favorite subjects.  
Xander was shocked to find out that Buffy was just as  
big of a Babylon 5 geek as he was. How did he miss out  
on that over the years? He thought he and Willow knew  
every little important and non-important fact about  
Buffy. He knew that Willow didn't know about this  
little admission because she would tease him about his  
Babylon 5 decorative plates, so he was sure she didn't  
know that Buffy was secretly admiring them as well. So  
that made him wonder if he now knew more about Buffy  
than the she did, or at least more of the geeky side  
of Buffy than Willow. That thought made him want to  
smile as he took another bite of his cereal.

Buffy turned around and look at Xander as she stirred  
the cream and sugar into her coffee. He looked as  
though he was in deep thought, but he had a small smirk  
on his face. As if he might be trying to hold back a  
smile. Knowing him, it was probably something zany, but  
completely Xander like. And she did know him. She  
realized that during her time working with him she now  
knew him better than she had ever before. She already  
knew the basic Xander stuff, but now she knew so much  
more and in so much more detail. She now knew that  
Xander didn't like the minty candy Lifesavers because  
when he was younger he once was sitting on the  
sidelines in gym class and he choked on one.  
Therefore, he didn't like them now because ironically  
a Lifesaver almost actually ended his. Plus, Cordelia  
made fun of him for weeks because of the noise he made  
when almost choking to death. She also knew that as a  
child Xander thought the Care Bears where freakishly  
evil. His theory was how could anyone or anything be  
that happy and perky about living in clouds? She also  
knew that Xander was the one responsible for keeping  
her mother's grave clean and fresh with flowers every  
month. She always thought that maybe Giles had just  
paid some groundskeeper to make sure of the upkeep for  
the benefit of her and Dawn. But all this time it had  
been Xander out there taking care of it himself. No  
groundskeeper and no Giles involved at all. That  
admission had made Buffy want to hug her best friend  
and to never let go. Buffy suppressed a smile as she  
thought about that idea while she walked to the other  
side of the counter where Xander was sitting.

Xander watched Buffy out of the corner of his eye as  
she rounded the corner of the island. She was still  
doing that half smile thing as she came up to his  
right side and pulled out the stool beside him. She  
carefully put the cup of coffee on the counter and sat  
down on the stool next him. She folded her arms and  
placed them on the counter in front of her. Everyone  
once in a while she would blow on her hot drink to  
cool if off and take sips from it. But her left arm  
stayed lying on the counter, as her left elbow was  
lightly pressed to his right elbow. Xander continued  
to munch on his cereal and even pored himself a new  
bowl. He looked calm and collected but underneath the  
counter showed the true energetic Xander because his  
legs were dangling and swaying side to side while  
bumping into Buffy's on every few sweeps. Buffy and  
Xander stayed staring ahead not a word being voiced  
yet.

Both Buffy and Xander realized that with all the time  
they had spent lately saying so much, that now, after  
their little blow up, this didn't have to be one of  
those wordy times. This was just them sitting in  
comfortable silence just soaking up each other's  
presence. Xander slowly slid his bowl of Cocoa Puffs  
in front of Buffy, while Buffy place her cup of coffee  
in front of Xander as an unspoken offer. Buffy took  
his spoon and started eating his cereal and Xander  
started taking sips of her coffee. They both were  
still staring straight ahead, but now wore bright  
smiles on their faces as they enjoyed their breakfast.  
They both knew that this was their silent peace  
treaty. They didn't need wordy forgiveness's or  
friendly I love you's, they just knew it now. Now was  
the time where they could just sit and just be Buffy  
and Xander. And that was the best part about spending  
so much time together, being themselves and being  
completely comfortable with that.

* * *


	6. Chapter 6

**Title: "Help Wanted"  
By: Lexie  
Summary: Xander needs a new secretary and Buffy just happens to be  
available. Chaos ensues.  
Disclaimer: I definitely don't own Buffy. If I did BX would have  
happened long long ago and would probably be married by now and there  
would have been at least two Xander's in every episode since there's  
twins that I could use. Two Xander's is always a good in my book. But  
anyways Fox, Mutant Enemy, UPN, and who ever else, owns everything  
Buffy related. Not me no matter how much I wish for two Xander's.  
Rating: PGish  
Category: Humor/Romance**

**This fic is dedicated to Shawn and Brooke.**

**A/N: Line Break means changing of POVs and/or scenes. **

**

* * *

"Help Wanted"

* * *

**

**2 Months later.**

Buffy was currently painting her nails behind her desk while she  
watched Xander file some papers away in the new filing cabinets. Buffy  
had politely offered to file them for him. She figured it was her job  
after all, but Xander just as politely turned her down. He had mumbled  
something about still searching for lost papers after her last filing  
mishap. But by that point Buffy had decided it was time to play  
selective ears and was already on her way to picking out what color  
would be best for her, nail wise. She chose passion pink. The thought  
of doing her toes next occurred to her but she figured it might be  
pushing it to far with Xander on that one. Xander would probably have  
an aneurysm if his boss walked in with her feet propped up on the desk.

She peered at Xander as he filed and thought about how much she  
respected him. He really was an adult, funny as admitting that sounded  
in her own head. She always knew that Xander was probably the most  
adult out of her and Willow with how successful he was with his  
construction career. But she really didn't understand it until she  
started working with him here. He's so well respected by his workers,  
and treated them all with the same. His authority didn't come as a  
taskmaster, but as formerly one of them who knew how to relate. It was  
almost odd seeing him in this grown up role. Buffy was used to the  
Xander she had known for so long. The one who made jokes and was  
always up to goof around with her. He was still that Xander, but so  
much as more now. He was truly a leader, she could see how easily it  
was for him to move up the corporate ladder. He really was great at  
his job and he really did love it with a passion. She was so glad that  
he found this confidence within himself and built upon on it, making  
it a great career. Most of all she was so glad that she was able to  
work with him to see this hidden passion of his. It felt special to  
her and she was so very glad for being able to witness this man that  
Xander was here at the office.

"Hey Buff, that new Ben Stiller movie is coming out this weekend. Do  
you want to go see it Friday?" Xander asked randomly as he closed one  
of the smooth black filing cabinet drawers.

"Yeah, sure, sounds nice. You gonna buy me a big box of goobers?"  
Buffy asked, smiling with out even looking up from her task.

"If you play nice." Xander teased back with out turning around from  
the new black cabinets.

The new cabinets had actually been her idea. After spending the last  
two months in the trailer from hell, Buffy had decided it was time to  
expand her skills and help Xander redecorate it a little. They had  
spent the last two Saturdays going to some furniture and office supply  
stores. Xander had complained a little in the beginning, but was soon  
enthralled when she would play like Vanna White and show things off  
like on "Wheel of Fortune." So then on Sundays they spent most of the  
day moving things into the office that they had bought the previous  
day. She had been the one to complain in the beginning on that one,  
but she soon found herself having fun when she got to be the one to  
point and tell Xander where he should move something. Except Xander  
would get perturbed when she would change her mind so many times.  
Buffy told him that Rome wasn't built in a day. And he came back  
saying to call him when she was done building her Roman empire. She of  
course pointed out she would need one cute strong construction guy for  
that. So then she decided since she was a Slayer and she didn't want  
Xander to throw a back out from all the heavy lifting she would help  
him move the things. They spent the rest of the day moving things  
around together.

The good thing about working with your best friend was that it made  
the working part not so bad after all. She found that she enjoyed this  
summer job a lot better than she ever thought she would. And liking it  
had nothing to do with a construction site or being a personal  
assistant or even the paycheck, but everything to do with spending the  
time with Xander. Xander was a great boss. She knew that she wasn't  
the best secretary in the world. There had been a few 'mishaps,' as  
she likes to think of them, which would probably drive any boss mad.  
But Xander was always nice and calm about things. She figured that  
even though sometimes it caused more work for him, he would let them  
slide because it gave him more opportunity to tease her about  
something. That was fine with her because she could come up with her  
own witty retorts just as well as he could.

The last two months had flown by and she was actually happy with her  
life right now. The last few years in Sunnydale had been rough for  
them all, but like always they stuck it out together. Now things  
seemed almost normal for them. The Hellmouth seemed to have completely  
dried up. So that meant there were no more daily threats from the  
latest creature spat out by the Hellmouth. Still just to make sure the  
Hellmouth stayed human friendly, she would sometimes do a short  
patrol. Xander usually went with her on those patrols just for the  
simple fact to keep her company. Now days the patrols could be  
considered more like a stroll through Sunnydale and a stop by a Baskin  
Robins at the end for ice cream.

Dawn liked to tease her about spending so much time with Xander,  
almost like she was trying to hint at something. So she had to put a  
stop to that before Dawn could think anymore of it. She told her that  
they were best friends and that's what best friends do. She could tell  
that Dawn was about to point out some things that Buffy didn't want to  
think about too deeply at that point in time. So she quickly averted  
Dawn's attention to the fact that she had been coming in later than  
her curfew allowed lately and offered to discuss that with her  
instead. Dawn appropriately decided to drop the hinting around thing  
and went up stairs to get ready to go out with her friends.

So what if her and Xander were spending more time together lately.  
They were best friends. Best friends who worked together. Best friends  
who lived together. So of course they would spend time with each  
other. So what if they went to the movies together? Or if sometimes  
they patrolled together? Or if their Friday nights consisted of movie  
nights by themselves? Or that they ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner  
together? Or that their weekends were spent laying around the house or  
decorating the office together? Best friends can do all that, right?  
Sure there had been that one time were they fell asleep on the couch  
together and her sneaky little sister had seen it the next morning.  
She probably saw it the night before when she came in late, but  
figured this was her "get out of jail free" card and decided to play  
it for her advantage. Best friends can sleep together, right? And  
that's all it was, sleep. Good old fashion sleep that even involved  
snoring and drooling. That's it. Her and Xander were both tired from  
the week and simply fell asleep on the couch and somehow got entangled  
a bit. She remember thinking that morning when she woke up that it was  
the best sleep she had had in a very long time but she soon realized  
why and she quickly banished those thoughts from her head. This was  
Xander her best friend. That's it. Best Friends. The end.

"Hellooo? Anyone in there?" Xander said while tapping lightly with his  
fingers on her forehead.

Buffy blinked and tried to clear her head of her internal debate. "Huh?"

"You just spaced out on me there. Where did you go? Tell me so maybe  
one day I can visit." He said smiling while sitting down in his desk  
across from her.

"Oh. Um. No where. Just thinking I guess."

"Really?" He looked at his watch on his wrist. "It's a bit early for  
any deep Buffy thoughts, isn't?"

She just shrugged.

"So what were you thinking about so deeply that you missed out on my  
whole discussion on the mysterious special sauce at Rex's Burger Hut,  
which I apparently held the conversation by myself."

Buffy opened her mouth to say something, but shut it and quickly  
looked down. What was she suppose to say? Oh I was having a debate  
with my sister in my head? A debate that involved you and a depiction  
of our friendship/relationship. Sometimes it was a little weird just  
thinking about it too much. To say it out loud would undoubtedly go  
into awkward territories. And why do that? There was no need when they  
were best friends. That's it. Best Friends. The end. She repeated to  
herself in her head.

Buffy swallowed and just shrugged again. "Just thinking about nothing  
really."

Xander raised an eyebrow. This was undeniably Buffy's trying to hide  
something face. He had known her far too long to know that face by  
heart. Usually that face involved hiding something about her love life  
and some vampire. The last part of that thought made him frown. There  
weren't any annoying souled or cursed vampires near so that wasn't it.  
Maybe he should prod her a little more to get to the bottom of this.

Before he could ask anything more the trailer door swung open wide  
breaking all thoughts of Buffy's deep internal reflection.

"Mr. Harris, zone 17B needs your attention. Your men are still laying  
concrete when they should be working on beam structure already," the  
older man said stridently while walking into the office.

Oh crap, Xander thought to himself. It was Allen Johnston. He was the  
first Johnston, of Johnston and Johnston construction. He was the head  
muncho guy of them all. This guy was the Robert Diniro of the  
construction world. He had been known to make head foremans so nervous  
that they wanted to pee on themselves. Or so that's what Xander had  
heard. There had been many horror stories that involved Allen Johnston  
and he had heard enough to know not to cross this man's wrath. If the  
man could come onto a work site, take on glance around, and then fire  
you on the spot, that was power. He had to figure out how to please  
this man. Xander quickly stood up and tried not to freak out. He  
looked at Buffy who looked slightly surprised and was just staring at  
him. What to say?

Buffy knew whoever this guy was, he must be important. Xander had gone  
from calm and collected to verge of spazzing out. She sat there  
looking wide-eyed between Xander and the older man in the nice suite.  
Xander was standing now, but he looked like he was ready to pee on  
himself.

"Oh. Uh. Well, Mr. Johnston, my men are laying an extra layer of  
concrete so that it will be sure to meet inspection. You know they  
always say the way to good construction is sucking up to the  
inspectors." Xander nervously laughed and then gulped. He wondered if  
everyone else heard him do it too.

Mr. Johnston just stood there looking at him blankly. Xander couldn't  
tell if he agreed, thought he was funny, or was getting ready to fire  
him. His reaction seemed to be taking an eternity. If he was going to  
fire him just do it. Then at least he could have the rest of the day  
off and he could go home and sulk. Buffy would probably be all  
sympathetic and huggable.

"You are…" Mr. Johnston paused and then pointed to Xander. Xander  
stopped breathing. "Absolutely correct."

Xander felt like passing out.

The older man stepped more into the office and finally noticed Buffy,  
the new secretary. He looked up and down at her and gave her a look  
that Buffy could only describe as a leer. The tips of his mouth slowly  
rose at the sight of her.

"Edna, either you've been taking your vitamins or I'm just becoming  
hopelessly delusional in my old age," the older man said while  
smirking at Buffy. She swallowed back the come back, "try senile  
dementia," but she knew this was important to Xander so she just  
simply smiled.

Xander on the other hand laughed a little too loudly at the old man's  
joke. Senile Perv was running threw Xander's mind though.

"Mr. Harris, you did not introduce me of the newest employer of  
Johnston & Johnston. You know I like to give a very warm welcome to  
all our new employees."

Xander and Buffy both bit their tongue at his attempts of flirtation.

"I'm Allen Johnston." He held his hand out for Buffy to shake. "That's  
Allen Johnston of Johnston & Johnston. I'm sure Alexander here is  
being good to you. We at J&J value and cherish all of our employees.  
So tell me…." he drifted off as if asking for her name.

"Buffy. Buffy Summers." She smiled as she gave him her hand to shake.  
He then proceeded to shake it, but he kept a hold of it longer than  
any other normal hank shake and went one step further by putting his  
other hand over hers in his. Buffy felt like ripping her hand away and  
possibly doing some kind Slayer move on him to wipe the almost dirty  
look off his face.

"Buffy, that's such a unique name. So tell me Buffy, is Xander in  
tip-top shape here?"

"The tippest of tops. He's the best boss I've ever had!" She smiled  
brightly at him. "He hired me didn't he?"

The older man laughed at that and Buffy took that moment to slip her  
hand away from his.

"Buffy here, is a good friend of mine who is helping me out until I  
find a replacement for Edna," Xander nervously threw in.

"Ahhh yes. Well I think your friend here looks like a fitting  
replacement." He winked at Buffy, whofought for control of her  
eyeballs to keep them from rolling at him. Who did this guy think he was?

Just then the trailer door flung open again.

"Daddy! It's hot and muddy out here! And you know how my hair gets  
when…." The young lady stepped into the office, at first sounding  
annoyed, but then she soon came face to face with Xander and her tone  
changed completely. "Oh…Hellooo."

Xander seemed to have squeaked out a "Hi" at the new incomer. The  
young lady just stood and beamed at Xander. She was tall, had  
cleavage that was hardly covered, long legs, and was a red head. Buffy  
looked between the two and she felt like telling Xander to go ahead  
and wipe the drool off of his chin. Could he be gawking any more?

"Daddy, you didn't tell me that you hired such hunky construction men.  
If I had known that I would have come with you visiting sites a lot  
sooner," the woman flirtingly said. Buffy thought Xander was turning  
new shades of red that hadn't even been discovered yet. What was up  
with this family and overly flirting at first sight?

The older man turned around and looked at his daughter. "Yes, well,  
there's a reason why you've never came with me to a site before."

Buffy thought that was the first thing she had agreed with him on  
since he walked in the door. Apparently sleaziness ran in the family  
and she and Xander just couldn't get away from them. Poor Xander was  
probably dying over there with that walking plastic Barbie doll  
dissecting him with her eyes.

"Uhh…Yeeah. You would have set my men out of commission if you had  
came by any sooner!" Xander laughed out aloud and gave her his own  
imitation of beaming smile, but it being Xander, it came out more  
goofy and cute. Buffy whipped her head towards Xander. He was flirting  
back! The woman of course giggled, which Buffy only found more  
annoying. She suddenly felt herself gritting her teeth.

"Honey, this is Alexander Harris. He is one our fastest rising  
foreman's in this company. So that's why he is the head foreman of  
this site. He is in charge of building the new mall here in Sunnydale."

"Xander! Friends call me Xander that is," he nervously chuckled. He  
held his hand out for her to shake it and she must have learned moves  
from daddy dearest because she too took his into her hand and went as  
far as laying her other hand on top of his. What was with the hand  
holding with this family, Buffy annoyingly thought to herself.

"Well Xander, my name is Candi Johnston. I'm just visiting Sunnydale  
for a little bit while my father is here with the company," she said  
in an all too bubbly voice. Of course her name is Candi, Buffy  
thought, what else could this Barbie wanna-be, be called?

"Oh wow. Candi. That's my favorite kind of food! And let me be the  
first to welcome you to Sunnydale!" Xander laughed out again. Candi  
giggled and Buffy started gripping the pencil that she held in her  
hand a little tighter.

"Well Xander it is sooo my pleasure meeting you today." She beamed  
again as she glaringly looked him up and down.

Xander nervously chuckled under her inspection. "Oh, pleasure is  
definitely involved in meeting you today as well, Candi!"

Suddenly the pencil that Buffy was holding snapped in two. Not only  
did it snap in two but one end also fell off and the other that was  
left in her Vulkon death-gripping palm crumbled into many little  
pieces. At the unexpected snapping noise all three people suddenly  
turned to her and for the first time since she had been standing  
there, Candi finally noticed Buffy was there as well. With all the  
eyes on her now, all Buffy could think to say was…

"Ooops"

"Oh, honey, this is Buffy Summers. She is the newest employer here at  
J&J. She has the very important job as Mr. Harris's assistant."

Buffy slowly stood up now that Candi seemed to judging her appearance  
while staying rooted by Xander. She was the Slayer and had faced down  
many a demon and foes in her day; so this fake Paris Hilton wanna be,  
with her stink eyes, wasn't about to jar her. She was just some girl  
with a little mini skirt, that could be considered a hand towel in  
some countries, and a tiny pink shirt on with her big boobs popping  
out everywhere and had big hair. That's all she was. Buffy crossed her  
arms across her chest and one side of her mouth slowly rose to give a  
somewhat wicked smile.

Candi's hand finally slipped out of Xander's hand and she turned  
slightly more towards Buffy and cocked her head to the side a little  
so she could face her down. Who was this chick, she thought to  
herself. She was short, petite, and blonde. She had a stylish knee  
length black skirt on with a dark blue three quarter inch sleeve  
blouse on with a white halter top poking out at the end of the shirts  
curved opening. She was trying to pull off the conservative style. She  
had known girls like her and she ate girls like her for breakfast. She  
didn't know this Buffy person's relationship with Xander, but she knew  
that Xander had been drooling since the moment she stepped in. He  
seemed a little nervous but that was okay. In fact, it was kinda cute.  
Plus, he had the whole construction worker sex appeal working for him.  
Who ever this Buffy person was rather she be secretary, friend, or  
whatever else she wasn't too worried about her competition.

Xander looked between the two girls standing off. This wasn't good.  
Buffy was doing her cocky Slayer pose and Candi was sending her own  
cocky vibes towards the Slayer. And of course there was always the  
simple fact of Allen Johnston, the man that holds his career's future  
in his hand was standing there as well. And Candi Johnston, who was  
the daughter of that said career holder, was currently getting the  
death glare from the slayer. He didn't know what was going on or what  
was going through Buffy's head, but he knew that good could not come  
from this at all.

"Buffy?" Candi tested out in a snotty tone. "Well that's…..different I  
guess," she said snorting.

Buffy raised her eyebrow. "Yeah I guess it is….Candi? Is it?"

Neither girl broke the stare down. This was just the ritual  
animalistic stand off to Candi. She was used to it from other girls.  
She slowly strode over to in front of Buffy's desk and put her hand  
out for the petite blonde to shake.

This time the small snort came from Buffy as she took Candi's hand.  
She hoped the weird hand holding thing wouldn't apply to her again,  
but she had a feeling that she was the wrong sex for that. She just  
put on the fakest smile she could muster and shook her hand while  
inwardly smiling.

"So how's progress coming along with the inspectors?" Mr. Johnston  
asked Xander.

Xander was watching Buffy and Candi closely as they shook hands and  
both held phony smiles for each other. "Uh. It's going good. City  
inspector is coming out Monday to do a walk around and give us the  
thumbs up or not on the layout."

Buffy let go of Candi's hand and the girl turned around and strode  
back towards Xander. Except Xander noticed that when she turned around  
her face was slightly red and she was secretly flexing and shaking her  
hand from what must have been a little to much grip on Buffy's side of  
the shake. She was undoubtedly trying to hide it from Buffy so the  
other girl wouldn't see that she got the better of her in the handshake.

"Ah good. Well, I expect that you will pass the lowly City inspection,  
right Mr. Harris? Or will we have bigger problems on our hands come  
Monday? One being finding a new head foreman for the city's new mall?"

"Ohh no..no sir! No, meaning there will be no need for new foreman  
hiring come Monday. All systems are a go for the City inspector,"  
Xander said in a cheerful yet nervous tone.

"Daddy! Stop giving poor Xander here such a hard time! I'm sure this  
smart and sexy construction worker can handle some city guy!" the  
giddy rich girl offered, who was now by Xander's side once again. His  
blush came back full force with the girl's declaration. Buffy  
couldn't control her eye movement this time as she rolled her eyes  
thankfully no one saw her.

"Yes, well if that's what it takes to please any inspectors, he better  
be damn smart and sexy for them!" the construction company owner  
laughed out. Xander faked a laugh but was thinking to himself he would  
pretty much play smart and sexy to Mr. Johnston if that was what it  
would take to please him and not have him searching for a new career  
come next week.

"Note to self: wear smart and sexy suite Monday. Check," Xander joked.

"Good. Well I guess we shall go now. I just wanted to come by and  
check in on you since this is your biggest project to date, Mr. Harris."

Xander just nodded. Truthfully he was just thankful that the  
nerve-wracking old man was finally leaving.

"You know Daddy you've been wanting me to get out and get acquainted  
with Sunnydale. Who better person to get acquainted with than Xander?"  
she winked at Xander. "I'm sure Xander could show me all the ins and  
outs of this town."

"Hmmm," Mr. Johnston turned towards Xander and looked at him trying to  
decide if Xander was trustworthy enough to take out his daughter.  
Xander suddenly felt like he was about to have an anxiety attack.  
"Well I guess it would be better than some random person from some  
club or mall. What do you say Mr. Harris?"

Xander was speechless. He was basically being asked out by his boss,  
except, it was to take his daughter out on a date. If he said no what  
would that mean? Would that make him look bad? If he said yes would it  
make him look bad or better? And besides wasn't this some violation of  
some work law? Xander wasn't exactly sure and really it couldn't be  
too hard to take the girl out for one night. Right?

"Um, yeah, sure. Love too!"

Buffy thought she felt sick. This had to be some form of sexual  
harassment. And the worst of it all Xander was agreeing to it! What  
was he thinking! Dating the boss's daughter wasn't a good thing,  
especially this boss's daughter. She was just bad for Xander. Bad bad  
bad!

"Great!" Candi cheerfully exclaimed. "What about this Friday?"

Uh oh. Xander thought to himself. This Friday. This Friday as in like  
Friday nights when he and Buffy had their movie nights. This Friday  
night as when they had already agreed to go to the movies together,  
Friday night. He didn't want to break their date…er..plans for this  
girl. But he had just stupidly agreed to take her out and it was his  
boss's daughter. Oh the pressure. Xander looked at Buffy for a second  
hoping she could help him out in some way, but she just seemed to be  
staring holes in his head waiting for his answer as well.

Candi noticed his slight hesitation and his look over to Buffy. What  
was that about? "Is there a problem, Xander?" She looked between  
Xander and Buffy with a curious gaze. "What, are you guys…" she  
pointed between the two Scoobies implying that they were something  
more. At the sound of her implication Mr. Johnston became interested  
in the conversation again. He was pretty sure relationships in the  
work place was frowned upon…or at least relationships that didn't  
involve him, a secretary, and secrecy. But Buffy quickly squashed that  
notion.

"Ha! Me and Xander? Yeah right. That would be like…like…" She didn't  
know what she was saying. She was just mad. Mad at this slut for  
coming in thinking she was God's gift to the penis and mad that Xander  
was clearly a penis wielding man who wasn't beneath falling to her  
trampy ways. She hated men. "…. it just…be…Weird!"

Xander's mouth fell open just a little. Should he be offended by that?  
Weird? He hasn't been weird in years, or at least not as weird. She  
was the weird one! "Candi, Friday is perfect!"

"Great! I'll come by again tommorrow to set a time." She said cheerfully.

"Great!" Xander cheerfully faked back.

"Great." Buffy deadpanned to herself.

* * *

**Later that evening.

* * *

**

Buffy and Xander were driving home and the Slayer was still mad. It  
had only been about an hour and half since that wanna-be-Barbie  
named Candi had left, so Buffy was still fuming. How could Xander go  
for someone like that? Every time she thought about it the madder  
she would get and she couldn't stop thinking about it so that just  
left her furious. She wasn't sure if she was madder at the fact that  
Xander would just go out with someone who was clearly just using him  
for whatever skanks like her used for or that he had just blown off  
their Friday night movie date with out a second thought. Buffy  
looked over to Xander's side of the car. He was just staring  
straight ahead and driving. Was he even concerned for her feelings  
in this at all? No! The big bimbo loving dummy.

"Hmmph," she crossed her arms after making the noise and turned back  
to her side of the car and looked out at the houses as they passed  
them by. She didn't even want to look at him right now.

Xander heard her little "Hmmph," and turned to look at her with a  
raised eyebrow. But he was just met with the sight of the back of  
her head. He was in the doghouse now. He knew because she had been  
giving him the silent treatment ever since Mr. Johnston and Candi  
had left and the only time she broke her silence was when she would  
give him one of those disapproving noises like she had just done.  
And now it was back to the silent part.

He really hated it when she was mad at him. Especially when she  
brought out the big guns by giving him the silent treatment. She  
knew he hated that. He was the kind of person that needed to talk  
every few seconds to feel alive. He was like a shark.

She was taking his date with Candi a little more seriously than he  
expected. He hated that he had to give up one of their movie nights  
for it, but he had no other choice after his boss and daughter  
cornered him into it. Besides, after this afternoon, he didn't think  
that Buffy cared that much about the nights. Now he thought she just  
did them because she had nothing else better to do. It originally  
started out as a thing for him, Buffy, and Dawn to do on Friday  
nights. A way for them to spend time together. Then Dawn had to grow  
up and get a life so that just left him and Buffy. They just  
continued them on with out any other further acknowledgement. He  
loved them and he thought Buffy enjoyed having them as well. And  
sure, there was a small side to him that liked to think that it was  
their thing now, something special just for them. Almost like a  
date. But then Buffy had made her feelings clear on the idea of  
dating him earlier when she said that dating him would be weird. He  
hated it when girls categorized him in the weird section. So now he  
felt a little hurt and angry by the whole situation as well. He  
didn't know what Buffy's problem was, but she wasn't the only one  
who was in a foul mood.

"I don't know what giving me the silent treatment is going to  
accomplish," Xander said as the turned onto their street.

"Not having to talk to you is what it accomplishes," Buffy replied  
harshly without even turning towards him.

"Okay look, I am sorry that I can't be at your every beck and call  
to entertain you tomorrow night," Xander declared snidely as he  
turned into their driveway.

Buffy finally turned towards him after that comment. "Okay, first of  
all I highly doubt watching Attack of the Killer Tomatoes'  
or Revenge of the Nerds' for the umpteenth time is considered  
entertaining. Secondly, what are you now, my babysitter? I don't  
need you there to make sure I don't run with scissors or drink Drano  
or something. I'm a big girl Xand, and I don't know if you can  
relate to this or not, but I can be an adult and do things own my on  
now."

"Really? You sure could have fooled me Buff. How many times did I  
show you how to turn the typewriter on again?" Xander asked  
sarcastically.

"Uggh! I don't even want to be in the same car with you right now!"  
she groaned as she ripped her seatbelt off, got out of the car, and  
slammed the car door behind her. The whole car shook as Xander  
watched her go around the front of the car in a hasty retreat. She  
wasn't about to get away with the last word with him. They were  
going to have this out and quit this whole silent crap. He charged  
out and followed her quickened path to the door.

* * *

Dawn was enjoying the quietness of the house as she sat at thekitchen island  
and ate her bowl of cereal. She loved Captain Crunchbecause it  
was by far the best cereal. She knew since she had triedalmost every cereal known to man. Xander had a sugar fixation and so that meant that she and Buffy were "introduced into the world of  
sugar-y goodness" as he had explained it. It was a good place to be.  
Especially times like this when the house was so quiet and peaceful.  
She can still remember a time not so long ago when the house was the  
opposite of quiet and peaceful with all those loud and rambunctious  
teenagers running around. That was a time she didn't like to think  
about because of what all that had happened to them. That time  
during their lives seemed like it had been a million years ago. She  
guessed it was because of the stark difference between their lives  
now and back then. Now things were nice. Living with Buffy and  
Xander was a lot better than she will ever admit to them, but really  
it was the best thing she had experienced in a really long time.  
Since even before her mother died. Things now seemed pretty normal,  
even by regular normal standards. If you considered regular normal  
standards to be a teenage ball of energy, the oldest living slayer,  
and her best male friend all living together under the same roof to  
be normal. But after all that she felt as if they really were a  
family. 

Of course two members of this family seemed to be growing a lot  
closer lately. So close that she didn't see one with out the other  
and she wasn't sure one was capable of living their own life with  
out the other, either. Buffy and Xander were so attached at the hip  
now she wasn't sure where one began and where one ended now days.

Buffy and Xander were so falling head over heals for each other and  
the best part was that they didn't even know it. Dawn had the  
pleasure of watching their serious denial for each other for some  
time now. She was surprised Buffy had not jumped Xander sometime in  
the middle of the night yet. Or that Xander had not just kissed her  
sister every time she did that little half smile thing she does.  
Dawn could tell he wanted to do it so many times. Her sister and her  
best friend were falling for each other and Dawn was finally happy  
with her home life. Yup, her life was good now, she thought to  
herself as she enjoyed her cereal in the peaceful serene.

At that moment the front door swung open and an angry Slayer came  
stomping in. She then turned and slammed the door shut behind her  
and continued her stomp up the stairs. The door immediately flung  
back open as Xander raged in after her.

"Uh Owww!" he yelled after Buffy. "Real mature Buff, real mature!"  
He then slammed the door behind him and followed the very pissed off  
Slayer up the stairs with his own stomping pattern.

Dawn just sat there staring at the sudden intrusion with her spoon  
still paused in mid air at her mouth. Well so much for the peaceful  
serenity, she thought to herself. She dropped her spoon back into  
the bowl and scrambled off the stool and out of the kitchen. She  
wasn't about to miss out on this action. This may be better than the  
peaceful silence or at least more entertaining, she thought as she  
trotted up the stairs after the angry duo.

Once she got to the top of the stairs she caught the tail end of  
Buffy's door slamming shut with Xander standing in front of it in  
the hall.

"Is it that hard for you to believe, Buffy, that a member of the  
opposite sex can find little ole me attractive!" he yelled at her  
door. He wasn't sure if she could hear him or if she was even  
listening anymore but he yelled it just the same. "I don't know if  
you know this concept or not, but when normal people like someone  
they usually just ask that person out for a fun night out!"

"Oh please!" They both heard Buffy's muffled voice threw the door.  
The door then swung open and the voice came loud and clear  
then. "Normal! You call that fake Barbie wanna be, Normal!"

"Oh, are you jealous Buff?" Xander questioned her while jutting his  
lip out as a fake pout to mock her more.

Buffy scoffed at him. "Of what? Sasquatch, the abnormally tall girl,  
who uses her father to get dates? Or you, who can only get asked out  
if its in your job description!"

Now it was Xander turn to stomp to his room and slam his door shut.  
It wasn't hard since it was right behind him and directly across  
from Buffy's room. Dawn chuckled to herself, "Wow, this was more  
entertaining than watching Cops."

Buffy whipped her head towards her little sister and for the first  
time noticed that she was standing at the edge of the stairs. Dawn's  
laughter immediately stopped when the Slayer's angry glare fixed on  
her.

"What?" Buffy asked harshly. Dawn raised her eyebrow and shook her  
head.

"You are in such denial. Its funny really."

"What!" Buffy asked in an absurd way this time.

"You are so in lo…." She didn't get to finish her sentence before  
Xander's door swung open again and both girls jumped slightly at the  
intrusion.

"Dating! Is not in my job description!" he yelled while coming out  
of his room putting him back in the hall with them.

"Oh Really! Oh so its just flirtation for promotion?" she asked  
incredulously. "Oh sleep with her and go for a pay raise for us both  
Xand!"

"Maybe I will!"

"Ugh! Maybe I'll go barf!" and with that she went into her room and  
slammed her door again.

Xander stared at the closed door and then looked at Dawn noticing  
her for the first time as well. "You're sister is impossible! She's…  
she's…nuts!" with that he too went back into his room while slamming  
his door behind him.

"People around here should listen to me more often. I've been saying  
that for years now." Dawn offered to no one in particular since she  
was now standing alone in the hall, but that soon changed when  
Buffy's door flung open once more.

"The only thing that's making me nuts is probably being around you  
for excessive amounts of time!" She yelled loud enough for Xander  
to hear in his room. Xander's door soon flew open once more.

"Yeah, well then those feelings are very much mutual here!" Xander  
scoffed at her. "I'm surprised I'm not filling out applications for  
the nearest loony bin since working with you would make any sane  
person go crazy!"

"Ohh Puh-lease!" she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her  
chest. "That again? Will I ever live that down? Okay, so I'm a bad  
secretary. So sue me! I mean what's the big deal anyways!" with  
that she flared her arms out and then turned around and slammed her  
door again. Dawn thought Buffy's slams were sounding harder each  
time she did it. Her ears were beginning to ring with all the  
banging going on.

"The difference between a bad secretary and you, Buffy, is a bad  
secretary messes up a couple of times making copies. YOU made the  
copying machine smoke!"

"One time!" Came her muffled response once again and then her door  
swung open and crashed against the wall behind it with its fast  
motion. "That was one time! And you know it! At least it was an  
honest attempt and not me flirting my way up the corporal latter!"

Xander had started stomping back towards his room and was about to  
slam the door until he heard the last part. "It wasn't like that!"

"Really? Mr. Ohhhh pleaasuuure is so involved on my side, OhCandi….It's my favorite  
food!" she teased in a deep tone mocking Xander's voice and then  
changed it into an annoying high pitch voice to mock Candi's, "And  
Ms. Ohhh Xander you sexy smart ass kisser." She then crossed her  
arms. "I'm surprised you didn't throw her down right there and have  
your way with her!" By this time both Buffy and Xander were standing  
in their doorways staring each other down. Dawn bit her lip to keep  
from laughing out too loudly as her head went back and forth as if  
she was watching a tennis match trying to keep up with them both.

"Okay I soo don't sound like that! And I just want to state that  
your levels of maturity that you are showing today has hit all time  
new lows!"

"Oh yeah? How's this for maturity?" And with that she shot him the  
bird and slammed her door once again. Except this time when she  
slammed it, it came off its hinges. Buffy caught the door before it  
could fall in on her and she tried to shove the door shut again but  
it wouldn't go in right because it was wobbling too much. Dawn burst  
out laughing.

Xander smiled at her. "What's wrong Buff? Door not working right for  
ya? Tsk Tsk always with the breaking things!" Dawn was pretty sure  
Buffy just made a growling noise while she struggled with her door.

"Yeah Xand. Why don't you just come fix this since that seems to be  
your only job around here!" she said while holding her door up off  
the floor and shoving it into the doorframe again.

"Oh Yeah! Good idea Buff! Since the only thing you are the head of  
is the head of breaking things'" He put air quotations on his last  
jibe. He knew that would get her since she was previously sensitive  
to that quip about her time at Double Meat Palace. "Oh and look  
Buffy, my door still works!" With that he slammed his door one last  
time. He went and sat down on his bed. His blood was boiling but he  
felt like he had kept up with her for quip to quip. He even got the  
last word in!

Just then his bedroom door came flying off its hinges and came  
crashing down with a loud clatter. It slid across the floor until it  
stopped right in front of his feet. Xander looked up with his mouth  
hanging open in shock.

"Ha! See how your door works now!" And with that Buffy stomped  
back to her room.

Dawn stood in the middle of the hall between two doors that were  
completely missing and with two people sitting fuming in their rooms  
and the only thing she could think to say was…

"Okay I thought I was suppose to be the only one in this house going  
through their angst-y teenage years."

* * *


	7. Chapter 7

**Title: "Help Wanted"  
By: Lexie  
Summary: Xander needs a new secretary and Buffy just happens to be  
available. Chaos ensues.  
Disclaimer: I definitely don't own Buffy. If I did BX would have  
happened long long ago and would probably be married by now and there  
would have been at least two Xander's in every episode since there's  
twins that I could use. Two Xander's is always a good in my book. But  
anyways Fox, Mutant Enemy, UPN, and who ever else, owns everything  
Buffy related. Not me no matter how much I wish for two Xander's.  
Rating: PGish  
Category: Humor/Romance**

**This fic is dedicated to Shawn and Brooke.**

** A/N: Line Break means changing of POVs and/or scenes.  
**

**

* * *

"Help Wanted"

* * *

**

**Later that night.**

Dawn climbed the last of the top the stairs and stood in between Buffy  
and Xander's bedrooms. She looked at both doorways and noticed that in  
place of the doors where now white bed sheets hanging from each  
doorway. Ever since Buffy had gone door crazy and took down two of  
their doors by herself, things had been deafly quite. Silence once  
more ruled the house and this time it wasn't the peaceful serenity as  
it had been before. Now it was two pissed of twenty-something year  
olds fuming in their door-less rooms. It was really stupid for them to  
be acting this way. She wasn't even clear on what they were fighting  
about. All she knew was one minute she was eating Captain Crunch and  
the next minute doors were flying off their hinges.

Dawn sighed to herself. She had to fix this. She couldn't take this  
suffocating quietness anymore. Plus, she wasn't sure she could handle  
loosing any more doors. If things kept going as they were then Buffy  
would probably go for her door next and she was a girl who needed her  
privacy. Especially since she lived in a house with two idiots who  
were so in love with each other that they didn't even know it yet.

Looks like it was time for more of a hands on approach. Dawn decided  
it was best to start off with the easier one of the two as she turned  
to go into Xander's room. Once there she knocked lightly on the door  
frame and pulled back the sheet. Xander was sitting on the floor with  
his back against the bed while he watched TV in the dark. The only  
illumination in the room came from the flashes of light the TV was  
sending out, which cast most of his room in dark shadows. Once she was  
inside, Xander looked up and gave her an unusually gloomy "Hey" for  
the usually cheerful senior Scooby Gang member.

"Hey. Whatcha doing?" she asked attentively.

"Watching Who's the Boss."

"Oh really?" She looked up to the TV sitting on his dresser and sure  
enough Tony Danza was on screen prancing around in the kitchen saying  
"A-oh Oh-A." She could remember watching that show with Buffy and her  
mom when she was little. Buffy use to love that show.

"You know when Buffy was little she use to be in love with Tony  
Danza." Surely that would get Xander to crack a smile, but he didn't  
even fall for that one. All he did was make a grunting noise of  
acknowledgement. Woah, he was in a gloomy mood. Not even the prospect  
of having goods to tease Buffy with would get him to lighten up.

How should she approach this? She sat down on the edge of his bed with  
Xander sitting just to the right of her on the floor facing the TV. So  
far he had been pretty non-responsive to her being there. Either that  
meant he was uberly pissed or that he was far too interested in the  
show. She looked back to the old re-run on Nick-At-Night. She  
remembered watching this episode before; it was the one where Tony  
walked in on Angela taking a bath. It was funny stuff. "Oh hey this is  
a really good episode. I love this one!"

"Yup. Me too. One of my favs," he remarked dully.

Okay honestly she didn't know how to approach this with Xander. She  
didn't mind pointing out the obvious with Buffy and telling her to  
stop being so stupid and just ask Xander out already. It would  
probably be even a little fun to point out all the obvious points to  
Buffy; she didn't care if her sister got pissy at her for it. But with  
Xander it was a totally different ballgame. If you had Xander mad at  
you it was all new levels of guilt. "You know she's not really mad at  
you pacifically."

At first she didn't think that he had heard her from his unfazed face,  
but then he threw out a "Could have fooled me," without even looking  
away from the TV screen. What she really wanted to say to him was,  
you've also have fooled yourself into thinking you aren't head over  
heals in love with her you big dummy, so what does that say about you?  
But instead she said, "Well, being her sister, as well as fellow girl,  
I can tell that only about 50 of that madness is not at you, but just  
mostly at the situation of it all."

"Well I can't help the situation of it all. I don't think I even know  
what the situation of it all is. So how am I supposed to help it?" he  
asked finally breaking his attention from the TV show and onto Dawn.

"Well why don't you tell me what happened. Maybe we can figure out the  
madness of my sister's logic together. Of course I don't have all  
night so lets try to keep the Buffy madness narrowed down to this  
particular lunacy event." Dawn teased and looked down to see Xander  
holding back a small grin. Finally some signs of the real Xander.

"Try days. Buffy madness isn't something that can be figured out in  
one night." He looked at Dawn smiling. "If ever completely figured out."

"True True. So what I gathered from the whole slamming of doors battle  
was that someone asked you out at work?"

"Um well kinda. It's more like my boss, you know the one that I  
sometimes refer to as Lucifer, came by with his daughter today and I  
somehow got roped into showing her around town…" Xander paused and  
then quickly said, "…tomorrow night."

Dawn was following along by nodding but when she heard that last part  
she stopped and looked down at him. "Tomorrow night? As in Friday  
night? Ohhhh," she considered, knowing full and well what Friday  
nights meant to Buffy and Xander. "I see. Well that explains why my  
sister went berserk with door slaying around here."

"No, that's just Buffy being…" he paused and looked up at Dawn. "Well  
just Buffy. Besides I really didn't want to skip out on movie night  
either but it just happened."

"Hmm, Yes," Dawn said. "Well you could always call off the date and  
then you and Buffy can happily have your Friday night back."

"I wish I could but I think it may be to late. I just want to get it  
over with like how I want to get this project done with so I can move  
on up the ladder and not have to deal with these people anymore. Plus,  
ever since Anya…." He looked down not wanting to talk too deeply about  
Anya's death but looked up at Dawn knowing she would understand. "…you  
know…I just haven't felt like dating or anything. I dunno I guess just  
got too comfortable hanging out with you and Buffy. You guys being  
such great company and all. I just don't want to burden your time  
anymore. Maybe it's time I get back into the scary world of dating."

"Xan," she added softly and slumped down to sit on the floor beside  
him "you have never been a burden and you could never possibly be one.  
Even if you tried really really hard. Buffy and I have really enjoyed  
being roomies with you. I know Buffy can't live with out her daily  
Xander dosage. That one's addicted to you, I can tell. Of course that  
could be a bad thing depending on how you look at it." She smiled at  
him and said finally "But if you think you need to venture out into  
the dating world again, then be my guest. But maybe you should be  
taking Buffy with you instead of this boss's daughter." With that she  
stood up and started headed towards the door.

"Buffy? What's that suppose to mean?" He had a feeling what she was  
trying to hint at but that wasn't possible. "If your referring to  
dating Buffy I think you are over thinking things. Besides Buffy  
thinks it would be weird to date me, her words not mine."

She paused at the door and turned towards Xander again. "Xander have  
you seen Buffy's last few boyfriends? They are the definition of  
weird. In fact they couldn't be any weirder. Next year Webster's  
putting "weird love" in their book and Buffy's past boyfriends are  
going to be lined up beside it. So what does that say to you about  
Buffy's explanation of weird?"

Xander wasn't sure what he was supposed to say, so he just stared at  
her. Did he really want to think on that too deeply? Dawn thought he  
needed a little more to think on it so before she walked out she said…

"Oh remember earlier when I said that 50 of her madness was at the  
situation of it all?" She asked.

"Yeah."

"Well that other 50 is pure jealousy." With that she threw the bed  
sheet back and walked though the doorway smiling. That should give him  
some things to think about tonight.

Now it was time to tackle Buffy's side of things. This should be  
interesting; Dawn thought to herself as she knocked on the doorframe,  
pushed the bed sheet back, and stepped into Buffy's room.

Buffy was laying with her back to the head board with her legs  
sprawled out in front of her. She was hugging a pillow to her chest as  
she watched TV in the dark. Dawn turned back to look at the TV to see  
what her sister was watching but she had a feeling she already knew.  
Yup, she was right. Tony Danza was still dancing around in the  
kitchen. Buffy was watching the exact same episode of "Who's the Boss"  
as Xander was. Typical. Dawn thought to herself as she turned back to  
Buffy.

"Let me guess this is one of your favorite episode too?" she asked as  
she jacked her thumb over her shoulder pointing to the small TV.

Buffy looked at Dawn with a slightly confused expression as she asked.  
"How'd you know?"

Dawn just rolled her eyes and shook her head. It figures that the two  
of them would love the exact same shows and both be sulking in their  
rooms watching it at the same time. If these two didn't get together  
soon they were going to drive her to the loony bin. Dawn walked to the  
side of the bed that Buffy wasn't occupying and heavily plopped down  
beside her with a sigh. Other than the old re-run on the TV there was  
silence in the room for a moment.

"So how many times a day do you dream about Xander smoochies?"

"What!" Buffy screeched out and turned towards her little sister  
looking at her as if she had just grown a second head.

"Oh. Maybe they are shirtless Xander smoochies…is he shirtless?"

Buffy just sat there blinking at Dawn for a second. "Again I say….What!"

"Well I just figure the way you walk around here all day drooling over  
Xander, your fantasies of him must be really good and detailed."

"Wha…I do not drool!" Buffy screeched out again.

"Oh so you admit that your fantasies involve yummy Xander smoochies?  
Wow this was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be."

Buffy's mouth fell open but she quickly shut it. "I did not say that!  
You are twisting my words around! I don't know what you are talking  
about!"

"Suuure you don't. We can both play that game. Except we both know  
that you are so deeply in love with Xander that you can't even see  
straight. But Shhh don't worry, we can both keep pretending that you  
aren't already in a relationship with Xander."

"What!" Buffy's screechy voice came back.

"Whaaat!" Dawn imitated Buffy's voice. "Is that all you can say? Tell  
me, which one of us is in college again? I mean really, Buff, use your  
words."

"Why don't you tell me why I haven't literally thrown you out of my  
room yet, huh!" Buffy asked dangerously. It was more of a dangerous  
statement than a question.

"Maybe because you are so shocked that I am speaking the truth about  
your googly eyes on Xander that you've been rendered motionless?" Dawn  
asked innocently.

"Oh that's it!" Buffy yelled as she jumped up off the bed slamming  
her pillow down and faced Dawn.

"Uh oh," Dawn rolled off her side of the bed and scrambled to her  
feet. She wasn't as smooth and graceful as the Slayer was when getting  
up but nevertheless they both were standing facing each other with the  
bed in between them.

"Have you been eating those weird anchovy and peanut butter sandwiches  
again? I knew those things were bound to affect your brain!" Buffy  
said incredulously while pointing at her from across the bed.

Dawn crossed her arms and faked pouted at her sister. "Aww, Buff, are  
you cranky? I guess I would be too if I was sexually frustrated  
because I was living with man who I wanted but kept telling myself  
that I couldn't have, only to have that man sleeping right across the  
hall from me every single night. That's gotta drive you crazy!…er."

Buffy lunged at Dawn from across the bed.

"Eeeek!" Dawn yelled out as she ran from her sister's sudden grasp.  
Well its time to leave Buffy to her thoughts by herself, Dawn thought  
to herself as she quickly headed towards the door.

Right before she ran out of the door way she turned and quickly said  
to Buffy "Oh, if you suddenly get the urge to just go ahead and jump  
Xander tonight, try to keep it down I have to get up early tomorrow!"  
With that she flung the sheet back and quickly exited the room,  
leaving a very shocked and very confused Slayer behind.

"Now that's what I call fun." Dawn laughed to herself once she was  
safely alone in the hallway outside Buffy's door.

The pillow that came careening out of Buffy's room took Dawn and the  
makeshift bed sheet door down in its route. Dawn laid on the floor  
spread eagle. She turned over on her back and smiled up at the ceiling  
saying to no one in particular…

"Oh yeah she has it bad!"

* * *

**Next Morning.

* * *

**

Buffy was lying in her bed thinking about Xander and what Dawn had  
said the night before. Her little sister was apparently going crazy.  
She wasn't jonesing for Xander. He was her best friend. Falling in  
love with your best friend had to be a big no no in the best friend's  
handbook. And he meant too much to her for her to start falling for  
him now. She couldn't just risk her friendship. She did love spending  
time with him lately. And maybe she was getting a little too  
comfortable with it. It just felt great to be able to sit back and  
just be Buffy with him. No Slayer, no leader, no counselor, just  
Buffy. She hasn't felt this comfortable with herself in a very long  
time. But dating Xander would be crazy. He's Xander. Cute lovable  
Xander. No matter what Dawn said she wasn't day dreaming about  
Xander…much. It was just an occasional thing that was completely  
innocent! Like wondering what Xander would be like on a date. Would he  
be nervous and be over spilling with goofy jokes? Or would he be all  
cool and suave? Maybe he would be a little bit of both? And Xander was  
never shirtless in them that's for sure!

Buffy sighed and sat up looking at her door with the newly replaced  
bed sheet. She guessed she did get a little carried away with their  
"debate" yesterday. Xander just made her so angry sometimes. He should  
know by now not to anger a Slayer. If there was anything to be learned  
on a Hellmouth, that was number uno on the list. Candi was the real  
problem with this whole situation. She was really the reason for her  
being so mad. The girl was just all wrong for Xander and Xander didn't  
even seem to care. Plus, the ho bag had made the date on Friday night,  
which they already had, plans for. This girl had to be evil. She could  
sense things like this, she is the Slayer after all! That and Xander  
always seems to attract them. Yup, she definitely had evil vibes going  
on with her stupid short skirt, big stupid fake smile, and her stupid  
poofy hair. Evil!

Xander was just distracted by it all she guessed. Evil had a tendency  
to do that to a person. Who wouldn't be when the evilness was throwing  
herself at you. Was it right to blame him and destroy his door over  
it? Probably not. But she couldn't help it when she was so irritated  
by it all yesterday. However, even though it annoyed her to no end and  
they did have a small blow out, they still had to go to work today.  
They couldn't hold out the silent treatment while there. So it was  
probably best to let things slide for now and just try not to think  
about Candi or her evilness. What she did have to think about was  
beating Xander to the shower. Even if she was supposed to be mad at  
him, he was not going to beat her at the shower time.

Buffy had to be extra quick these days if she wanted to get some hot  
water for herself. Every morning the precious time in the shower  
brought on a new battle with Xander. It was always a big rush to get  
ready and living in a house with only one full shower and tub made it  
very precious. And a hot one even more precious. That's why they  
battled over the shower every morning because they both knew that who  
ever got to it first would use most of the hot water up and the poor  
soul who got in next would get a cold surprise half way through.  
Therefore, creating the start of a bad day and who wanted that?

Dawn constantly had to play referee over their battles of the  
bathroom. She once even threatened to start taking bathroom privileges  
away. She then went off on a lecture about how precious water was  
these days. She started stating facts about water shortages and  
talking about people she didn't even know who lived in some place  
Buffy couldn't even pronounce and how they didn't even have running  
water. By this point Buffy had already started blocking her out and  
was coming up with a plan on how to beat Xander Harris to the bathroom  
in the mornings. She could set his clock and his wrist watch back  
about 5 minutes and that would give her just enough time to get to the  
bathroom, lock him out, and enjoy her extra steamy shower. She smiled  
evilly to herself when she thought that. This would be a good plan  
indeed. But then her smile faltered a little when she heard Xander's  
last crack about how the best way to save on water would be for him  
and Buffy to share showers. That would save a lot on water and then  
with the extra help they could both get to all those hard to reach  
places. He then gloated how he would take one for the team on this  
one. That night Buffy set his clock ten minutes back for that last  
crack.

But Xander was getting really clever lately. A couple of times he had  
some how beaten her to the bathroom. Once he even figured out a way to  
make her door stick shut so when she got up that morning she couldn't  
open her door. It was like it was locked from the other side. She knew  
who the culprit was when she heard Xander giggling like a little boy  
as he walked towards the bathroom. After she had practically ripped  
the door off its hinges, it was just in time to see Xander smile  
brightly at her and slam the bathroom door shut and lock it.

This morning she had decided to get up a few minutes early to give her  
enough time to beat that sneaky little rat. Buffy went to her door and  
stuck her head out and peered across the hallway. Xander's sheet for  
his door was still up but she could tell all the lights were still out  
and if she used her super hearing she could hear Xander's evened out  
breathing indicating that he was still asleep. She knew Xander's  
breathing because she had listened to it a lot over the last 2 months  
while working with him in the little trailer. He had a breathing for  
when he was exhausted from something, a breathing for when he was  
concentrating on work, a loud breathing for when he was bored or  
annoyed, and a breathing for when he was asleep. She was a Xander  
expert so she should know his breathing patterns.

A wide grin came over her face as she sneakily ran down the hallway  
towards the bathroom. The early bird gets the all the hot water, as  
she liked to say.

She entered and quietly closed the door behind her. She started  
setting about her morning business and started to prepare for her  
shower. She turned on the water and made sure it was to the perfect  
blazing temperature. She then started to gather her bath products that  
she would need. She set out her shampoo, conditioner, lotions, oils,  
and soaps. She suddenly realized that she didn't have her favorite  
soap of all. Where could it be? Did she leave it in her room  
somewhere? It was one of her favorite parts of her shower and she  
couldn't just go with out it.

"Crap!" She said aloud. That means she was going have to run back to  
her room, ram sack her room in search of it, and then come back. She  
could do that. She was known for her extra speedy-ness, surely she  
could be back before Xander even rolled over to get up.

* * *

Dawn walked out of her room trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes.  
This will be the last time she will offer to help her friend, Kit,  
move her family into a new house, especially if it involved ungodly  
hours like this. It was summer for goodness sake. A time for sleep. Or  
for Buffy and Xander a time to go to work. Dawn thought back to her  
discussions with the two the night before. She thought that she had  
been quite successful at throwing obvious little hints their way about  
their relationship. She gave Xander that extra little push in the  
right direction and well for Buffy it was mostly just fun seeing her  
all dazed and confused. Maybe now they could just admit their apparent  
feelings for each other and just go out. But even if they didn't just  
yet it would still be entertaining to watch them run around the house  
pretending to not be drooling for each other.

Dawn looked down at her watch. Yup it was time for the early morning  
ritual race to the shower. Dawn didn't know why her sister and Xander  
were constantly bickering over the shower. It wasn't like they were  
even fighting; it was more like a need to beat the other. It was like  
they were always in some kind of competition with each other. Lately,  
they had been acting that way a lot about little things. Rather it is  
showers, who got to choose what they were going to eat for dinner, or  
what TV channel they were going to watch it was a contest of teasing.

They were weird. Even their fighting wasn't normal. It was more like a  
mean flirting thing with each other. To the strangers eye it may look  
like two adults acting very childish but to Dawn's eye, who knew both  
Buffy and Xander like the back of her hand, it looked like both were  
ready to jump each other. The sexual tension in this house was so  
thick one could cut it with a knife.

She would probably find it annoying if she didn't think it was kinda  
cute that Buffy was in obvious denial about crushing on Xander and  
Xander was in denial about the fact that Buffy was in deed crushing on  
him. The flirty fight thing had been pretty innocent up until last  
night when the screaming match occurred. But even then the sexual  
tension was suffocating. Like always they were oblivious to it but of  
course again they were weird that way.

"Speaking of weird. Who left the shower running?" Dawn thought out  
loud as she walked into the bathroom. It had to be Buffy or Xander.  
That was just like them too. Probably all distracted with thoughts of  
smoochies and nakedness to even think clearly. Don't they know that  
water shortages are a big deal these days? What are they going to do  
20 years from now when they can't even take showers because somebody  
wasted water from like leaving the shower on just like this, thus  
creating a massive water shortage for generations to come. Did they  
not listen to her speech about the importance of conserving water? Did  
they not read the facts she pulled up on the Internet, printed off,  
and gave them? Did they pay her any attention at all?

"Hmmph" Dawn snorted as she irritably turned off the water. Then again  
it was times like this that made living with two morons, who were so  
in love with each other that they couldn't see straight, a real pain.

* * *

Xander was lying in bed blinking the sleepy cobwebs away. He was still  
pretty tired since he really didn't sleep much the night before. How  
could he with the thoughts Dawn left him with last night? He was  
already going to lose sleep over fighting with Buffy, but then Dawn  
had to come in and be all vague and hinty and leave him with to many  
thoughts. That was just like a Summers girl. Come in, suck all the air  
out of the room, and then leave you in a whirlwind of thoughts and  
feelings.

Before Dawn left his room she had dropped the bomb on him that Buffy  
was probably jealous. What was that suppose to mean? He stayed up most  
of the night thinking about it and he still didn't have the slightest  
clue. Was she jealous that he was going out on a date? Was she jealous  
of Candi going out on a date with him? That was a pretty absurd idea.  
Buffy wouldn't be jealous of that. Jealous of a girl who liked him?  
Buffy? Ha! That would almost be laughable if it didn't involve dating  
him. But Buffy jealous? Nope not going to happen. It might be funny to  
see her jealous but it wasn't Buffy-style to start getting jealous of  
his dates. If she was anything she was upset that he started dating  
again before her. That had to be it. It's the only thing that made  
anything resembling sense. And that said something since things making  
sense was hard to come by in Sunnydale.

But he needed to put all that thinking behind him. He and Buffy still  
had to get through the workday together. And he couldn't handle the  
idea of what damage she might cause at a construction site if she was  
still mad at him while there. There were far too many blunt heavy  
objects to throw around there. So he was just going to put everything  
behind him and try to make the best of the day. Now all he needed to  
worry about was beating Buffy to the shower this morning.

Xander stuck his head out the doorway. Buffy was nowhere to be seen  
and the bathroom was free for him to take. Ha! He thought to himself.  
He would rule the shower time today. No more freezing showers for him.  
No soiree!

An evil grin crossed his face as he made his way down the hallway.  
Buffy was probably still trying to find her favorite soap. He mentally  
patted himself on the back for thinking about hiding her soap so that  
she would be forced to take time to look for it. He knew Buffy almost  
better than he knew himself. And he knew that she would not start her  
shower without that really good smelling soap. That will teach her for  
setting his clocks back and making him take ice cold showers, he  
thought as he closed the door behind him.

If he learned anything from living in a house with a bunch of teenage  
girls last year it was that you had to be pretty quick if you wanted  
to take a peaceful shower. Otherwise you would have one angry Slayer  
on your hands. And you had to be even quicker if you were going to  
beat that angry Slayer for the valued bathroom time.

Even though Xander's ego was pleased that he had finally got the upper  
hand back on this whole shower deal, a part of him felt a little  
guilty that Buffy would have to take a cold shower. He always hated it  
when all the hot water ran out in the middle of his shower. That's why  
when the last few times he actually beat her to the shower, he would  
stand outside of the bathroom, count down to when her hot water would  
run out, and got a small gratification to hear her surprise yelp  
signaling when the freezing cold water came drenching down. Thinking  
about the cute scowl that she would give him later on that morning  
would always make him smile.

But today he would try to make it quick so that she would have some  
hot water for herself. They didn't need anything else to make this day  
more stressful. He quickly stripped down and threw his night clothes  
into the dirty clothes hamper in the corner.

"Only if she were more open to the idea of mutual showers…" he said  
out aloud as he turned on the water and stepped inside.

* * *

Buffy popped up from the side of her bed and leaned into it. Her soap  
wasn't underneath the bed either. She had looked everywhere. She  
looked around her room at all the pulled out draws, dumped out boxes,  
and scattered clutter all around that she had created while searching  
for the soap.

"I guess I will go with my back up soap," she mumbled out loud as she  
made her way to her closet. She pulled out a bottle of soap that she  
used only when 'her soap' ran out before she could buy a new bottle of it.

Buffy went back to the bathroom and noticed her shower was still  
running. She stepped into the room and quietly closed the door behind  
her and stripped down. Xander must still be asleep. Ha! She still beat  
him.

She reached for the shower curtain and threw it back to step in...

* * *

Xander quickly soaped up. He would be through soon and Buffy could  
have all the hot water she wanted. He didn't hear the door open and  
close. He didn't even see the hand that reached around the curtain.  
But he definitely heard the loud gasp when the shower curtain suddenly  
flew open...

* * *

Buffy got the shock of her life when that shower curtain flew open.  
There stood Xander Harris completely naked!

Her line of vision started at his shoulders and made its way south.  
She took in his built chest. Her eyes roamed over his tight abs. Her  
eyes continued to move south...

Xander turned towards the loud gasping noise, but he wasn't prepared  
to see the sight before his eyes. He couldn't move. He couldn't say  
anything. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't even think.

Buffy had no problems in the thinking department. All she could think  
was… For the love of god look up woman! Look up! She was just having  
problems in the not staring department.

Finally Xander brain started working. The words "Buffy boobies"  
flashed across his mind and he had to control himself from saying it  
out loud. That's when he noticed her blush and he suddenly realized  
that he was very much naked too. He had to get cover himself up, but  
Buffy was standing right in between him and his towel so he grabbed  
for the nearest thing he found.

Buffy finally got control of her mind and screwed her eyes shut. She  
had to stop staring! She had to get out of there! She had to cover  
herself up! She grabbed for the shower curtain at the same time  
Xander did.

With the force of both of them grabbing for the cover, the curtain  
immediately gave away and popped off the rod holding it up. It was  
left to be fought over by Buffy and Xander. Both had decided they  
wanted it for cover since it was the closest thing. Buffy pulled one  
way and Xander pulled the other.

They battled that way for a few moments. Buffy had decided she had  
enough of this madness and gave one Slayer strength tug at it and  
pulled it and Xander out of the shower. He was no match for the Slayer  
and tumbled out of the shower and right into her.

They both tumbled to the ground. Buffy was on bottom staring up at  
Xander. This was not good. Skin on skin. Xander well toned skin. Buffy  
felt her blush rise back up.

They both jumped up at the same time. Buffy snatched the rest of the  
curtain from Xander and covered herself up.

"I…" she started. She didn't know what to say.

"Buffy.." For the second time of the day Xander was speechless.

"Sorry…I…uh…" Buffy's words were jumbled in her head. Why were they  
coming out that way? Why wouldn't her legs work so she could get out  
of there? Why is he still standing there naked? More importantly why  
is she still staring?

"Oh god…" she muttered as she turned around and flung the door open  
and ran out.

"Buffy…wait…no its okay…wait!" Xander heard her as she ran down the  
hall with the metal shower curtain hooks clinging all the way down the  
hallway. He started to run after her but stopped dead in his tracks  
when he heard Dawn's "What the hell?" at the shower curtain clad Buffy  
running past her room. He slammed the bathroom door shut again before  
Dawn came out to investigate and saw his exposed state as well. Where  
was a damn towel when you need one!

**

* * *

Back in Buffy's room.

* * *

**

Buffy was standing in the middle of her room clutching her shower  
curtain that was still wrapped around her.

"What just happened?" she said to no one in particular. She flashed  
back to Xander standing there all wet in the shower. This was her best  
friend Xander. The one who she shared all her secrets and rocky road  
ice cream with. The one who she fell asleep on the couch when watching  
movies with. The one who she couldn't stop picturing his nakedness with.

"Oh god." She shut her eyes again and tried to will herself to stop  
thinking about it but every time she shut her eyes she only pictured  
it more.

"Buffy?"

She snatched her head up at Xander's meek voice from the hallway.  
"What!" she asked still a bit panicked.

"Um…" Xander slowly pulled her makeshift bed sheet door back and  
timidly looked inside her room as if he was scared she would be  
standing there naked again. "Can I come in?" he said and then slowly  
steeped in.

Buffy clutched the curtain to her more and gulped loudly. At least he  
had a towel around his waist this time. He was still soaking wet and  
his hair was spiked out going in all different directions. He must of  
not have finished washing off because he still had blotches of  
soapsuds on him.

"Um…" Xander just stood there not quite sure what to say. He was still  
trying to get his brain working again. What was he suppose to say,  
'Sorry I was standing in the shower nakedly when you came in?'

"Sorry I…" they both said at the same time.

"No I'm sorry…" they both said in unison again.

"No really it was…"

They both stared at each other and said in unison.

"Stop saying everything I say!"

"Ugggh"

Buffy just looked at Xander urging him to continue. She shifted  
nervously under his gaze and tried to ignore the loud squeaky noise  
her curtain towel made every time she moved.

"Look Buffy, its okay. I know it was an accident. Cleary from the way  
you ran out of there you didn't mean to do that. I'm not exactly sure  
who just gets into a shower when it's already running and they didn't  
turn it on but whatever. The important thing is that we are good  
friends who are both adults. We have both seen the opposite sex naked  
right? Its…its..um…no big deal… right?"

Buffy was only half listening and half thinking at the moment because  
she was being distracted by a water drop that was running down his  
chest. She watched it smoothly run over and down his pecks, over his  
abs, and go underneath the towel at his waist. Buffy gulped and  
snapped her head up as she caught the end of Xander's nervous ramble.

"Right!" She said a little too loudly. "I…Sorry …I didn't know you  
were…you know. It's…hey wait…why were you in my shower anyways?"

"You're shower? Hey you can't stake claim on it if you aren't in  
it….and I was."

"I left the shower on when I went to look for my soap so I fully had  
claim on the shower."

"What? No it wasn't on when I…." he stopped when it all started to  
make sense. They both stood and stared at each other while the wheels  
in their heads starting turning.

They both turned around and yelled in unison once more…

"DAWN!"

* * *


	8. Chapter 8

**Title: "Help Wanted"  
By: Lexie Summary: Xander needs a new secretary and Buffy just happens to be available. Chaos ensues.  
Disclaimer: I definitely don't own Buffy. If I did BX would have happened long long ago and would probably be married by now and there would have been at least two Xander's in every episode since there's twins that I could use. Two Xander's is always a good in my book. But anyways Fox, Mutant Enemy, UPN, and who ever else, owns everything Buffy related. Not me no matter how much I wish for two Xander's.  
Rating: PGish  
Category: Humor/Romance **

**This fic is dedicated to Shawn and Brooke.**

**A/N: Line break means changing of POVs and/or scenes. **

**

* * *

"Help Wanted"

* * *

**

**Later that day on Xander's side of the office.**

Well so far the day had been nothing but one awkward moment to the next. Xander was now sitting on his side of the room at his desk trying to get comfortable in the most uncomfortable kitchen chair known to mankind. The bad thing was that the stiff chair wasn't the sole reason why he was so uncomfortable in his own office. The sole reason for the awkward atmosphere was currently seating across the room staring blankly into the air. He sometimes wondered what was going through her head, especially now after the bumbling morning that they had both had.

Somehow they had managed to go from suffocating silent treatment, to yelling and destroying doors, to sulking in their rooms and racing for showers, to babbling awkwardness, and now finally they were back to the silent treatment. All in less then 24 hours, too. Except now the silent treatment was different because it wasn't by choice. It was just a slow quiet torture that they were both helpless too because they just didn't know what to say or do to make things better. So now the morning was going by at a snail's pace and Xander felt like he was about to go crazy. He had to do something about this. They couldn't do this all day. He might have to run out and run in front of a bulldozer if it went on for much longer. This was just stupid to feel so awkward about an innocent bathroom mishap.

Xander thought back to earlier that day and the sudden surprise in the shower. Thinking back to a wide eyed and birthday suite clad Buffy. Xander cleared his throat and his head, as he shuffled the papers on his desk for the tenth time that morning. Yup, he had to fix this uneasy drift between he and Buffy. Just as soon as he could think of something to say or do and the most important, stop picturing her naked.

He should probably try to get some work done. Maybe he could even ask Buffy to make some copies to put in the project report file. Maybe then that would get the ball rolling and they could get out of this agonizing awkwardness. Of course that would be risking his files if he let Buffy put her destructive hands on it. He didn't know what he should do. He looked up at Buffy who was still staring blankly ahead. Had she even blinked in the last twenty minutes? What could she thinking about so intensely that was her off in her own world?

**

* * *

Same time on Buffy side of the room.

* * *

**

Buffy watched the water droplet slowly roll down his chest. It slinked over his right peck and continued on its southerly track. It then slid over his tight stomach; if she concentrated hard enough she could actually count the times the water crept over each of his ripped abs. It continued its roll down but curved around his navel and slide even further south. Buffy felt herself gulp. She wanted to reach out and catch the falling droplet and then trace its same smooth path back up north.

She looked up to his face. His hair was still damp and unruly. But it wasn't a bad unruly but an unruly that made her stomach drop. She now wanted to run her hands through his hair and feel the smooth dark locks glide between her fingers. She wanted to brush the hair that had fallen onto his brow back and then trace his jaw line with her fingers. She just wanted to do far too many things with far too little hands to do them with. Now he was saying something to her. She stared at his lips as they slowly moved over each syllable.

"Buffy?" he whispered out.

"Huh?" She breathlessly squeaked out.

"Are you okay?" he asked in a concerned tone.

"Uh Huh."

"Are you sure, you looked kinda flushed…Oh hey you're not about to barf are you?" he asked now in an alarmed tone.

Wait he wasn't supposed to say that, Buffy thought to herself. Buffy blinked and snapped back into the real world. Xander was staring at her with a worried look on his face. Where was she? What was happening? Xander had gone from slightly wet and naked too fully dry and clothed and now he was staring at her waiting for her answer. She sucked in a gulp of air and then started chocking from the sudden intake. Oh crap, she thought to herself.

As soon as she started coughing hard Xander was at her side in a second. He started patting her on her back trying to help her out. He was just kidding about the barfing thing, now he was a little afraid she might actually do it.

Buffy in the mean time was still having problems regulating her breathing. What was she thinking! Xander…naked. What was she doing? Buffy flashed back to the night before when Dawn had accused her of daydreaming about Xander. She thought back to what her little sister had said to her:

"So how many times a day do you dream about Xander smoochies?"

"What!" Buffy screeched out and turned towards her little sister looking at her as if she had just grown a second head.

"Oh. Maybe they are shirtless Xander smoochies…is he shirtless?"

She was going to kill her little sister for putting those thoughts in her head! Torture was coming soon to a certain Key in teenage form. She looked at Xander who was still rubbing lightly on her back while looking at her with concern in his eyes. Maybe she should stick her head between her knees. She had heard once that if you couldn't breathe right that would help. She tried picturing herself doing that but felt she would look a little weird so she nixed the idea out.

"Buff, are you okay?" he asked attentively as he knelt down beside her and absent-mindly put his hand lightly on her knee.

Buffy looked down at his hand on her knee and she stopped breathing all together. She jumped up suddenly needing to put some space in between them. He stood back up when she jumped up so quickly out of her chair. "Buffy?" But then her coughing spell came back with a vengeance.

"cough..Yup…cough…I'm good…cough…. just need…cough cough. …water." she chocked out as she stumbled her way to the sink in the small kitchen. She turned around and filled a glass with water. She didn't know what she was suppose to say to Xander so she had to buy herself some time while she figured things out. She took the glass of water and drank it in one long drag.

This was all her sister's fault. That was it. Dawn had planted those ideas in her head the night before and she just somehow started subconsciously daydreaming about them now. Damn her sneaky ways! Buffy could still feel Xander's concerned gaze upon her so she turned around with a nervous smile.

"ahem..All better now." She said as she patted herself on the chest.

"Are you sure?" Xander asked still a little worried.

"Yup!"

"Darn I thought I was going to get to give you CPR again." Xander joked but suddenly regretted his big mouth when he saw Buffy blush. Not the best way to help them get over awkward situations.

"Heh, maybe next time I'll try to fall and knock myself out on the corner of the desk, for you." She nervously laughed out.

"See that's what I like about you. Always aiming to please your boss!" he said to her and smiled. Well at least they were speaking to each other again. Now maybe they could put all this weirdness behind them, he thought to himself.

Little did he know that Buffy was actually thinking, Wow he said the same thing earlier in her daydream.

**

* * *

Later that afternoon.

* * *

**

At least things were better, Xander thought to himself. They went to lunch together and talked through most of the break. There were a few awkward pauses here and there but for the most part they both seemed over the whole shower incident from earlier. Buffy had also seemed to let the annoying dating tension thing drop and was no longer giving him the silent treatment or dirty little looks. Maybe now would be a good time to drop an apology for breaking off their movie night. Perhaps, even a good time to test the waters and see her reaction on things. She couldn't get mad at him again and try to maim him at work, would she? Xander pulled one of his desk drawer's open and looked inside. Good, both the scissors and letter opener were still in his desk and not hers. At least she couldn't come at him with those.

"Buff?"

"Hmm?" she said not even looking up from her magazine.

"About this whole date thing tonight. " He said cautiously while mentally preparing for any sudden outburst she might have. But the only thing she did was look at him with a blank face as she got up and headed towards the small refrigerator in the kitchen.

Xander wasn't exactly sure how to take her blank reaction so he carefully continued on. "It's…It's silly to fight over something like that right? I mean we are both adults and…we're friends… right?"

"Right" Buffy said casually. She still had her back to him as she was getting a bottle of water out. Of course they were still friends. What else would they be? She thought back to the night before and what Dawn had said about them already being in a relationship. But she quickly pushed those ideas out of her head as she closed her eyes and took a sip of her water.

"And…I'm sorry for… you know, having to skip out on you tonight, and for yesterday calling you immature…twice. Oh and for hiding your soap too." Xander said nervously while preparing to dive behind his desk should any kitchen appliances come flying his way.

Buffy turned around suddenly and pointed at him. "I knew that was you!"

"Heh, Yeah sorry about that. I didn't know that it would cause such a nakedly outcome. If I had known it would do all that than I would have, you know…..done it sooner." He teased her.

Buffy crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him while trying to hold back a smile. "Uh huh. Suuure your sorry."

Xander laughed. "I am, really! So we're cool now?"

"I guess…but you really owe me for sticking me up for Ms. Bimbo 2004." She said as she walked over to his desk.

"Who Candi?"

"Yes Candi! Also are you really sure she's not some demon, mummy, or bug lady trying to make you her next prey?" She was now standing in front of him looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Um well as far as I can tell the only thing she might be called is the daughter of Satan A.K.A Allen Johnston. She seems like a nice girl. I mean no hellmouthy vibes coming off of her so far, right?"

"You say that now but what will you be saying when I'm untying you from her demon-y torture chamber, huh?"

Xander didn't get a chance to respond before she was talking again but he noticed the door behind her open and closed but Buffy didn't seem to notice because she continued on. Xander's heart stopped though when he notice who the new visitor was.

"And…and besides who does she think she is getting her father to get her dates? I mean how pathetic is that? Oh and what kind of name is Candi? And don't even get me started on her hair. Can we say stuck in the 80's?"

Xander just stared at her with wide eyes. He was trying to shut her up by giving her pleading eyes telling her silently to stop talking but she wasn't getting his hints so he faked a cough.

"Water?" She asked simply while offering her bottle of water to him. But Xander just shook his head quickly no. So Buffy continued on.

"Oh plus! She's got really hairy arms and fat ear lobes. You're children'll look like werewolves!" Buffy told him like it was the most helpful tip.

Xander was still looking at her with wide eyes and was pretty sure he had stopped breathing about thirty seconds ago. Buffy finally paused and looked at him.

"What?" She asked innocently. "Oh wait is she standing behind me or something?" She asked with an evil smile. She then turned around to see a very pissed off looking Candi Johnston standing behind her. "Ooops" Buffy shrugged innocently but the smile on her face showed it was anything but innocent.

Candi stood there with her arms crossed as she watched Buffy walk back to her desk while smiling all the way. What was this wretched girl's name again? It was something weird.

Xander in the mean time had jumped up from his chair and started babbling trying to cover Buffy's tactlessness. "Uh Hi…Candi!…It's great to..uh..see you today!"

Candi though didn't seem to hear him because she was still staring holes into Buffy's head. This couldn't be good. He was going to kill Buffy later. She did that on purpose. She knew that his boss's daughter was standing right behind her. She was definitely going to pay for almost giving him a heart attack like this. He watched Candi as she slowly walked across the room until she was standing in between his and Buffy's desk. Xander swallowed hard and watched on nervously.

She turned to Xander again and smiled and said cheerily, "Hi Xander and…." She turned back to Buffy but her tone changed to a negative tone "Ummm…honey what's your name again?"

"Buffy" Buffy faked smiled.

"That's right! Buffy. I remember now because it was weird and it sounded a lot like barfy!" Candi faked smiled back. Buffy's smile dropped though.

"Yup, old Barfy here, she's a unique one!" Xander nervously laughed out a little to loudly. Candi turned back to Xander and giggled. Buffy though felt like showing this girl her barfy feelings.

"So Xand you're still going to be my official Sunnydale tour guide tonight, right?" she asked brightly.

"You betcha! Wouldn't miss that for the world. Although, really, there's not much to see here in good old Sunnydale. A stop light here and star bucks there and that's pretty much it."

"Well what's this place called the Bronze?"

"Yeah Xand why don't you take her to the bronze. That place should be well populated and lighted enough for you not to get abducted in." Buffy threw in sarcastically. Candi turned around and gave her a strange look.

"Ha ha! Buffy, always the kidder!" Xander nervously laughed out.

"Yes, Buffy, tell me what do girls…like you… do on Friday nights?" Candi asked condescendingly.

Buffy was about to say something about slaying evil and make a point to emphasize that she consider her evil but Xander butted in.

"Uh Buffy! Um…Why don't you make yourself useful now and go make double copies of these and then take one copy over to Jack outside so he can get an idea what he will be doing soon!" he decided it was time to put a stop to this showdown between the two girls before someone got hurt, most likely him. Buffy was doing all this on purpose and she was the one that had started it all. So he gathered a bunch of files on his desk, put them in a pile and dropped them onto Buffy's desk. That should teach her and keep her busy at the same time.

Buffy looked down at the stack of papers on her desk. He was giving her busy work! She looked back up at Xander and gave him a slayer glare. But he didn't budge.

"Aw, Xander, but your interrupting Buffy's important reading on…" Candi lifted Buffy's magazine that she had been previously reading and read the front cover."…. Medieval Weaponry of Today?" She asked looking up surprised and confused. Buffy just smiled at her, daring the girl to just ask her about it.

"Yes, well swords and crossbows can come later! So how about those copies, huh, Buff?"

Buffy gritted her teeth as she grabbed the stack up harshly and left her desk to go make the copies.

For the next 20 minutes Xander and Candi chatted nonchalantly about the weather, the new mall, and Sunnydale.

"So, Xander what time would you like to start our little Sunnydale exploration?" Candi asked.

Before Xander could answer a loud banging noise come from the filing room where Buffy was making copies. He and Candi both turned to look at the room where the noise was coming from but they couldn't see Buffy. Xander was suddenly worried about the copying machine. They heard more banging and from what they could hear it sounded like she was slamming the top of the copier down. It probably wasn't the best idea to leave Buffy alone with the copier, Xander thought to himself.

"Umm how about around 8 o'clock?" Xander said trying to draw Candi's attention away from the noisy filing room.

"Sound's great and who knows maybe after we explore Sunnydale we can do some different kind of exploring later on." Candi practically purred as she lightly ran her hand up Xander's forearm. That's when came a large bang from the filing room.

Xander just nervously laughed for what felt like the millionth time that day, he didn't know what to say to Candi's proposition or to the loud bashing noises coming from with in the small room. Was that the copier machine itself being slammed against the wall? After that Buffy walked straight out of the room and right pass Xander and Candi with out even looking at them or saying a word. Xander and Candi just watch in silence as Buffy stomped towards the door where she then opened the door, stepped out, and slammed the door so hard that the whole trailer shook from it's force.

Candi turned to Xander with raise eyebrows as if asking, what was her problem? All Xander could think to say was, "She's still kinda new here."

Buffy had to get out of there. She couldn't stand to be in the room with Candi drooling all over Xander like that. 'Explorations' yeah right, she'd liked to let her foot explore right up her skinny rich ass. And she definitely couldn't be in there to hear Xander's comebacks. If she had heard that she might live up to her barfy name.

Buffy continued her march across the construction site. She had to find this Jack guy and give them these stupid copies that she just spent 20 minutes slaving over. She wasn't even sure who this Jack guy was. Truthfully, other than Xander, she didn't know anyone else working at this site. Xander had introduced her to some of the men working there a couple of times, but she was never paying that much attention then since all she cared about knowing was Xander. And now she had to find this Jack guy in the huge complex, which was filled with sweaty hot construction men, that all looked alike to her. She did remember Xander talking about this Jack person and even mentioning once something about him being the only guy he could trust. But she didn't know what that meant. She just chalked it up as a guy thing. That whole Alpha male thing kicking in or something. She suspected that Jack must have been older if Xander respected him, so she just had to look for an older guy.

Buffy started looking around the site, but along the way she heard many cat calls and whistles. Since she couldn't really beat them down in broad daylight she would just have to ignore them as much as she could. She finally saw an older man at a stand looking over some rolled out plans.

"Um Jack?" She asked meekly.

"Yeah?" The older man said.

"Oh hey. Um Xander wanted me to give you these." She said while plopping down his set of copies over the plans he was looking at.

He looked down at them and looked confused. He didn't know what he was supposed to do with these, but if Xander sent them they must be of some importance. "Ummm, okay. Thanks." He looked back at them and noticed something odd about them. But then he noticed Buffy was still standing there, but she was now looking back at the trailer office she had just come out of. "Uh, Buffy right?" he asked.

"Yup! That's me." She said with out breaking her concentration on the office.

"You're the one going out with Xander, right?" He asked looking at the copies again, not really paying attention to what he was saying.

Buffy whipped around at that implication. "What! Me and Xander? Why do people keep saying that! Huh!" She prodded Jack who looked up surprised by the sudden outburst. "Xander and I are sooo not together. Yeah we spend a lot of time together. Yeah we slept together but that was one time! One! And the whole naked thing just happened this morning and it wasn't even my fault!"

Jack didn't know what to say to her sudden outbreak of too much information so he just held his hands up in surrender pose. "Umm, Okay. Whatever you say!"

Buffy felt a little bit awkward after her outburst. She probably shouldn't have said the naked or sleeping parts so loudly. "Well now that we are clear on that, I should probably head back to the office."

"Okay, thanks for the copies…" he looked back down at them. "…I think." But Buffy didn't hear him because she was already walking away now interested in watching Candi and Xander walk out of the office. She was so engrossed with Xander walking Candi to her car she didn't even hear all the cat calls at her this time.

Candi was obviously flirting with him. She was all in his personal space and giggly. Xander just seem to be blushing a lot. Buffy just rolled her eyes. She would be glad when this whole Candi phase was over. She couldn't believe the spoiled brat tried to imply that she had nothing to do tonight. And Xander just let her! She watched Candi lean up and kiss Xander lightly on the cheek before she got in her car. That's it! Buffy thought to herself. She didn't want to be the only one sitting at home alone tonight. If Xander can go out so can she!

She whipped around and pointed to the nearest guy she found. "Hey You!"

Barney was suddenly worried. He wasn't sure whom she was talking to. At first he just stared at her, but she continued to call him out. So he pointed to himself as if saying, who me?

"Yeah! You with the shovel! Come here!" Buffy ordered.

Uh oh, Barney thought to himself. He cautiously walked over to where Buffy was standing. "Umm I was just kidding around with the cat calls earlier, I didn't mean anything by them, I swear!" He blurted out when he got to her. But Buffy didn't seem to quite hear him because she was to busy concentrating on Xander and Candi again.

Buffy whipped around to him again. "So you wanna go out?"

"It was just an innocent ribbing I didn't…. Oh wait…what?" Barney asked confused.

"Tonight. Do you want to go out or not?" Buffy asked getting a little perturbed that this guy wasn't catching on quickly. It was a simple question.

"Oh…um… wait this isn't going to like get me fired or anything, right?" He asked worried. "Cause I thought you and Xander were…." He didn't get to finish the sentence before Buffy interrupted him.

"The only thing you will get you hurt, is if you finish that sentence!" Buffy told him quickly. "Xander and I are nothing! Nada. Zip. Complete opposite of…well something together! Xander is nothing in my books while he's seeing the walking plastic factory over there!"

Barney just raised his eyebrow at her. Buffy tried breathing deeply to calm her self and then plastered a big fake smile on her face. "So how about that date?"

* * *

Xander was back sitting at his desk in the office alone. Candi had just left and Buffy was still out of the office. Xander thought back to the Buffy/Candi show down earlier. Well that was fun, Xander sarcastically thought to himself. 

Xander started pulling drawers open in his desk because the event was so much fun that he now needed to eat some Tums now. If he concentrated long enough he thought he could actually feel the ulcer growing in his stomach.

Just when he thought things were getting better between him and Buffy too. It really wasn't his day today. Once again the silent treatment would probably be enforced by Buffy. Now they were going to be back at square one. He sighed to himself as he popped a few Tums tablets into his mouth. Could things get any worse today?

Just then the office door opened and Buffy bounced in. Xander watched her as she walked by humming to herself. She must have noticed his eyes on her because she turned and gave him a smile as she walked by. Then she continued her jaunty little walk to her desk. Xander looked at her with a confused expression but then he turned back and looked at the door she just came through and then at her again.

"Pod Buffy?" He asked puzzled. This was unexpected. Where was the fuming Buffy? Where was the silent treatment? Where was the desk flying his way? She just walked through that door like she just went to get donuts. He expected much more slayer involved in this. Not merrily Buffy.

Buffy looked up at him and smiled with a raise eyebrow. "What?"

"Oh nothing…just…this isn't a trick is it? I mean your not waiting for me to put my guard down and then attack me, are you?" He asked still puzzled.

Buffy just laughed and smiled again. "No, crazy."

"Well good…I guess." He didn't know what to think of this Buffy. He thought for sure World War III was going to break out when she walked through that door. Now she was acting as if nothing had happened. Either that meant she was so incredibly mad that she had looped around to deliriously happy and it was only a matter of time before she blew or…well he didn't know what the other 'or' was. Except maybe that Hell had frozen over. Funny it didn't feel cold outside.

"So are you and Candi all set up for tonight?" Buffy asked nonchalantly.

"Oh um…Yup. We're all set. Coffee and then the Bronze."

"Oh really? Hmmm." She said simply.

Here we go, Xander thought to himself. Here's the real Buffy. "What Hmmm?" he asked suspiciously.

"Oh nothing. Sounds like a nice night out." She smiled back at him.

Xander just narrowed his eyes at her. Okay at first he was confused by this much too passive Buffy. Now she was starting to freak him out a little. He liked it better when she was giving him the silent treatment; at least then he knew what she was thinking. Sure it wasn't good things about him, but at least he knew how to handle things then! "So…um… I'm sorry about the whole Barfy thing earlier. It just blurted out. You know me, the ole brain has a faulty connection to my mouth sometimes."

"Oh no problem." She said cheerfully.

Okay, Hell has frozen over; he should probably call Giles about this later. "Really?" He asked skeptically.

"Yeah, sure." She said without looking up at him while shoveling papers around on her desk.

"Okay, I give up. Who are you and what have you done with the real Buffy…Say, you haven't been hit by any magic split-you-in-two Toth sticks have you?"

Buffy laughed again. "What? Noo. It's just that I found at least one person on this site that doesn't associate my name with nausea."

"What?" he asked confused again.

"Oh well let's just say you're not the only one who is back in the dating game."

"What!" he said this time in a much more high pitched alarmed voice.

"Yeah, I have a date tonight too."

"What? How? What?" Xander screeched.

"How? Xander I know I've been out of the whole dating loop for a while now, but I think I know how to get a date. It was really easy too, just out side that door." She smiled. She was enjoying this immensely. This was much better than the silent treatment.

"Out there? Out there as in someone from my crew, out there!" Xander asked panicked while standing up from his chair.

"Yup!" She said brightly while standing up and gathering Xander's set of copies she did earlier. "Is there a problem, Xand?"

"Is there a problem?" he asked incredulously. "Problem?" He scoffed. Okay maybe he was over reacting just a tad bit. "Nooo, no problem at all." He laughed trying to downplay it but then stopped and asked panicked. "But who is it!"

Buffy smiled faltered a bit. Uh oh. She forgot to get his name. Crap! Crap! Crap it! She scowled to her inner self. It would probably be best if she knew the guy's name before she started dating him.

"Was it Mike? I saw him checking you out the other day…. that little back stabber." The last part was mostly mumbled to himself.

Buffy was thinking to herself that there was a chance that it might be Mike. He looked like he could be a Mike. But she wasn't sure. She didn't need to get this wrong. It might make her look bad. "Umm why don't I just show you?" she said while moving over to the window and raising the blinds up.

"Good idea." He wanted to see who this jerk was so he could remember him later. He wondered if he could just fire people on spot with out giving them any reasons at all.

"Oh there he is." Buffy pointed to two guys who were looking at plans. She then smiled up at Xander to see his reaction.

Xander bent down a little to get a better look out of the small window. Then he's eyes went wide… "You're going out on a date with Jack! He's married!"

"Oh god no Xander! Not Jack!… Him." She said while pointing out the window again.

Xander got closer to the window and put his hands on either side of it, trying to look around. He tried looking past Barney. Please God don't let it be Barney, he thought to himself. "Where?" he asked hoping to see someone else out there.

"There!" she said tapping on the glass but Xander was still looking to the left and right of Barney. "Xander, the guy in the red plaid shirt!"

Xander whipped around and Buffy thought his eyes were going to bulge out. "Barney!" he screeched out. "You're going out on a date with Barney!" he then turned back around to look at the construction worker again.

Barney? That was his name? He didn't look like a Barney. She was going out with a Barney? She made a small face but quickly covered it up. "Yup Barney! He's a nice guy that Barney! What's wrong Xand?…Oh, look Barney's waving!" She smiled and gave him a small wave back but she didn't think he saw it because Xander quickly yanked the blinds back shut. She jumped at the sudden snap of the blinds but then smiled to herself. Oh yeah this was much much better than the silent treatment.

He whipped back around to her. "You do know that you are going out with a guy who works at a construction site and is named Barney! Have you never seen the Flinstones? That's not a little too cliché for you!"

"What?" She scoffed. "Xander, don't be so judgmental!"

"Oh this coming from the girl who said I was going to have werewolf children earlier!" He said sarcastically.

The copies that Buffy was still holding crunched in her hand when her grip got a little bit tighter at his comment. Okay this wasn't so much fun anymore. But Xander continued on.

"I mean Barney! He's…he's…he's Barney!"

"Wow, really Xander, you don't say. Huh, I thought he was Elvis." She said sarcastically back.

"He's a womanizer and…. and a pig…. and he's just all Barney like! That's what he is! Why…Buffy… why would you do that!"

"What did you expect me to do? Stay at home all by myself? Xander, I'm not a loser! Oh! And I can get my own dates with out the help of close family members!" She said snidely.

"Oh yeah here we go! Welcome Back the Real Buffy!"

"What is that suppose to mean!" she asked astonished.

"Oh I don't know why don't you go out of the room and I will start talking badly about you and then you can come back in during the middle of it, and maybe then you can figure it all out!"

"Hey its not my fault Candi had to hear me speak the truth. I was probably doing her a favor…she really should work on her 80's hair."

"You're unbelievable!" he yelled.

"Me! What about you? Giving me busy work! What am I too you, Xander, a 7th grader!" She yelled back at him.

"Nooo more like a 4th grader with the way you were acting!"

"Uggggh! Well here's your stupid busy work!" She shoved the copies into his hands. "Why don't you shove them up your ass and when you do I hope you get paper cuts!" Then she walked to the door.

"Where are you going now!" He asked baffled.

"Home! Where I don't have to be around any crazed bosses!" She yelled back at him while she opened the door.

"How! You can't even drive!"

"Oh yeah! You wanna bet!" With that she held up to show him his keys to his Explorer and then slammed the door shut shaking the whole trailer for the second time that day.

Xander exhaled deeply and wondered if he should start filling out the insanity papers because of her but then looked down at the copies in his hands. They were all black and smudge and completely unreadable. He looked back up to where Buffy had just left and then started to count to 10 in his head.

* * *


	9. Chapter 9

**Title: "Help Wanted"  
By: Lexie Summary: Xander needs a new secretary and Buffy just happens to be available. Chaos ensues.Disclaimer: I definitely don't own Buffy. If I did BX would have happened long long ago and would probably be married by now and there would have been at least two Xander's in every episode since there's twins that I could use. Two Xander's is always a good in my book. But anyways Fox, Mutant Enemy, UPN, and who ever else, owns everything Buffy related. Not me no matter how much I wish for two Xander's.  
Rating: PGish  
Category: Humor/Romance**

**This fic is dedicated to Shawn and Brooke.**

**

* * *

"Help Wanted"

* * *

**

**Later that evening at the Summer's House.**

Buffy decided to go ahead and start getting ready for her date. She figured the sooner she got ready the less she would have to bump into Xander while he was getting ready for his night. Xander had not come home for work yet but it was that time of day for him to get in soon.

Truthfully though she was a little worried about how he was going to get home even though she shouldn't. Especially after calling her childish and saying she couldn't drive. She did fine driving home today. She only hit 3 trashcans this time. And those weren't even her fault, people shouldn't put their cans so close to the edge of their lawns, it's easier to hit them that way. Plus, how could she drive when she was all distraught from their falling-out?

Buffy walked into the bathroom and stop when she saw Dawn standing in front of the mirror putting her makeup on. Dawn saw her sister standing in the doorway through the reflection of the mirror and was surprise to see her. "Hey, what are you doing home so early?"

"I decided to take a sick day and come home early from work." Buffy said simply while leaning on the doorway.

"Oh really? You're sick?" she asked concerned.

"Yeah sick of Xander driving me crazy."

Dawn smiled knowingly, "Ohhh Reaaally? Is this Crazy as in padded rooms and straight jackets, kind of crazy? Or Crazzzy like as in you wanna swap spit and do naughty things with Xander, crazy? " She turned to her sister with her bright expression, but she was met with a scowl from Buffy.

"Don't even start. You are already standing on thin ice today, missy, what with that whole incident this morning. You better watch out or the next time a slime demon attacks, don't think I won't let him slime you up. You know that stuff is death to cashmere," Buffy threatened but Dawn just rolled her eyes and went back to putting eyeliner on.

"So if you're here then where's Xander?"

Buffy shrugged and tried to look like she didn't care. "I don't know. Do I look like Xander's keeper? I guess he is still at the office."

Dawn stopped her eyeliner task and looked at Buffy in the mirror confused. "Well how did you get home then?"

"I drove." She said simply but then thought Dawn's eyes were going to bulge out with her statement, good thing she no longer had the eyeliner stick up there.

"You drove? You!" She said while whipping around to look at Buffy.

"Yeah, So?"

"SO? How about So did you bring Xander's explorer back in one piece! Or So where their any lives taken today while you were behind the wheel!"

"Yes, Xander's vehicle is completely fine and no I did not take anyone out today, thank you very much. Oh and congratulations for being in the running for the most supportive sister in the world award this year!" She said sarcastically but then thought to herself that Dawn didn't have to know about those three plowed down trashcans. She could figure it out by herself when their trashcan was mysteriously missing tomorrow.

Dawn blew out a sigh of relief. "Good cause I wanted to take Xand's car to the mall tomorrow. I can't be seen riding around in damaged goods, I have a reputation to up hold, you know. Oh wait I guess you don't know anything about that do you?" she smiled while teasing her big sis.

"Ha Ha. So what are you getting so jazzed up for?"

"Kit and I are celebrating the fact that today's day ends with the letter 'Y' and we're going clubbing. In other words, we're going to our town's one and only club and fighting over Brad Murphy." Dawn said now applying lipstick.

"Oh well I guess that means we will all be out doing our own things tonight, huh?"

Dawn stopped and turned to her sister confused once again. "I know where I will be and I guess this means Xander is still seeing that girl, but what are you doing that involves the word out?"

"As of tonight, Buffy Summers is officially back in the dating world." Buffy said brightly.

"You're going out on a date too? With who?"

Buffy opened her mouth to say something but then she suddenly realized she had forgotten the guy's name again. Damn it! How was she going to prove she didn't love Xander if she couldn't think of her date's name? It started with a B….she thinks. Barry, Billie, Bobby maybe? "Um with this guy that works at the site." She hesitantly said.

"This isn't to cover up the fact that you are in love with Xander is it?"

Buffy narrowed her eyes at her. "Nooo! A, I am not in love with Xander!" She ticked off with her fingers. "B, I'm not covering anything up! And C, I am not in love with Xander!"

Dawn threw her lipstick and the rest of her makeup in her bag and zipped it up. At first Buffy thought Dawn was choosing to ignore her. But as Dawn was going out of the bathroom she stopped beside Buffy and threw a arm around her big sister and turned them both towards the mirror and look at Buffy's reflection through the mirror and said… "You just keep telling yourself that, Sis. But it's not likely that you will ever convince either of us." She squeezed Buffy once and then let her go and continued out the door.

Buffy just watched her sister as she walked out of the room but then Dawn popped her head back into the bathroom and said, "Oh and you can thank me later for your superb naked Xander time you got this morning!" She winked and then finally left.

Buffy sighed and turned back to the mirror. She looked at herself and saw her reflection staring back at her. "You're not in love with him." She said to her reflection and then pointed to it. "You're not!" she then decided she should probably stop talking to herself and go pick something out to wear for that night. She headed towards the door and reached for the light switch but looked at her reflection one more time. She gave one more sigh and shook her head. Then she flicked the light off, leaving all thoughts of love in the dark.

* * *


	10. Chapter 10

**Title: "Help Wanted"  
By: Lexie  
Summary: Xander needs a new secretary and Buffy just happens to be available. Chaos ensues.  
Disclaimer: I definitely don't own Buffy. If I did BX would have happened long long ago and would probably be married by now and there would have been at least two Xander's in every episode since there's twins that I could use. Two Xander's is always a good in my book. But anyways Fox, Mutant Enemy, UPN, and who ever else, owns everything Buffy related. Not me no matter how much I wish for two Xander's.  
Rating: PGish  
Category: Humor/Romance **

**This fic is dedicated to Shawn and Brooke.**

**A/N: Line Break means changing of POVs and/or scenes. **

**

* * *

"Help Wanted"

* * *

**

**At the Bronze later that night.**

Xander sat across from Candi and tried to look like he was listening intently to her talk something about shopping. In reality though he was more concentrated about looking for Buffy and her date, Barney.

He still couldn't believe that Buffy would go as low as spite dating someone. And of all people to date it had to be Barney, the obnoxious womanizer who got on his ever last nerve. If she could just hear that little creep talk about some women he was sure Buffy would slay him on the spot. Besides not only was he a pig but the guy was just all wrong for Buffy. He wasn't her type and he was just…Barney. He knew Buffy. Barney and Buffy had nothing in common. And Buffy needed someone with an I.Q. higher than a 3rd grader. She needed a guy that was smart, financial savvy, and who wouldn't freak the first time someone exploded into dust after she stabbed them with a piece of wood. She needed someone who knew her like he did. And understood all her crazy but cute quirky ways. Someone who was aware of all her wonderful flaws and perfections and didn't define her by them but loved her more because of them, because those flaws and perfections were what made her the breathtaking woman that she is today. He wasn't sure if there was a guy out there in the world who could do all that, or at least not like he did. He knew all those things and he knew them by heart. Barney sure as hell didn't.

He sighed to himself and wondered if it would look too rude if he look at his watch for the fifth time in the last half hour. This night was crawling by and he still had not seen Buffy. He wasn't sure if it would be a good thing to see her or not. On one hand he wanted to see her to keep on eye on Mr. Grabby Hands, Barney. Then on the other hand he wasn't sure the security here would be able to handle another altercation between Buffy and Candi.

Their last altercation left him having to hitch a ride home with Jack. When he did finally get home Buffy was tucked away in her room getting ready for her date or at least that's what he guessed. And once again their house was ruled by deafening silence. When he left to go pick Candi up she was still in her room waiting for Barney. It was probably for the best. He really didn't want to be there when Barney came by to pick her up.

He looked around the club once more. It was a packed house tonight, as it always was on a Friday night in a one club town. The band tonight was some boy band. Well he would consider them a boy band; Dawn on the other hand would call them a cool and trendy rock band. Of course they would be cool and trendy to her they looked about her age. In fact everyone there looked around her age. He looked at the mob of teenagers milling about and he suddenly felt very out of place. When did he become that guy? The oldie that was out of place at the bronze. He and the gang use to be what this place was all about. Within these walls held many memories for them, some bad and a lot of good, but now he was sitting there thinking that if he were at home with Buffy, they would happily be on the second movie by now.

He sighed once more and went back to trying to concentrate on what Candi was saying but then he perked up when he looked over her shoulder and saw Buffy and Barney weaving their way through the throng of young people.

* * *

Buffy squeezed her way through the tight crowd with Barney in tow. Barney was pressed up against her back with his hand lying lightly on the small of her back. He was way to close for comfort, but she couldn't tell if he was doing it on purpose or because of the mass of teenagers surrounding them. 

Was there always this many young people present when she use to hang out here? This place had to be breeching the fire code a good 200 kids back or so. They were everywhere. In every crest, cranny, crook, and corner. They spilled out in droves from all directions. And another thing that bothered her was that they all looked so young. She was never that young when she went here. Or at least she didn't feel like it. Now the place was packed with a horde of raging hormones and highly caffeinated teenagers. They were all annoying and immature. These people couldn't be older than Dawn. In fact they all probably went to school with her.

Buffy's heart clenched when she realized that she probably counseled some of these kids last year when she worked at SunnyDale High. Oh god was that Billy Zitterman walking by, the kid who had hygiene issues last year? This was bad. She shouldn't be here. She's too old. Oh god it was worse, she was Giles!

Now she was the old teacher sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the young. Maybe she should sit down because she was panicking to herself in her head, or even better maybe she should rip this guy's hand off her back because if it slinked any lower she would have to cause him bodily harm. This all reaffirmed that this was bad. She didn't want to be here. She didn't want any of it. She would give anything to be at home watching some stupid B movie with Xander right now. That's who they were now. That's who she wanted to be. And that was when she was the happiest. When it was just she and Xander.

She sighed to herself as she made their way to a section with more tables to sit at. She looked around the club trying to find a familiar face. The familiar face belonging to a certain dark haired best friend of hers. Xander was suppose to be taking Candi here as part of their tour around town. So Buffy figured she better stay close. There was no telling when Xander's love luck would strike again and Candi would shed her human form and attack him. She had to be standing near by for slaying purposes. So really she was doing all this for Xander's safety. Or at least that's what she was going to tell Dawn later.

"Hey Babe you wanna sit over here where it's a bit more private?" Barney asked as he pointed to a corner of the club that was indeed more secluded than the rest. Buffy looked at the area with a raised eyebrow and noticed that most of the occupants in that area where partaking in the deep lip lock ritual. That must be the make out corner or something. Buffy wasn't about to step a foot in that corner with this guy.

"Umm" she said hesitantly as she looked back to the tables more in the open. Just then she spotted Xander and their eyes met instantly. But then they both looked away quickly trying to appear as if they were not staring at each other. Buffy watched him in her puerperal vision as he animatedly laughed at something Candi said and put his hand on top of hers on the table. Buffy gritted her teeth and turned back towards her date. "Come on, let's sit over there, Bobby!"

"Uh it's Barney." He said but it fell on deaf ears because Buffy was to busy dragging him by the arm to the more open area of tables, closer to Xander.

* * *

"And then Bubbles died of congested heart failure. She was the best dog too." Candi explained sadly.

"Ha ha ha!" Xander laughed loudly as he put his hand over Candi's on the table. "Wow you are so funny and fun to be around!" he said energetically with a bright fake smile all the while trying to keep an eye on Buffy.

Candi just stared at him confused. What part of her family dog dying, funny to him? She decided to shrug it off, because it was actually the first time the whole night he showed any signs of life. So far on their date he seemed distracted or spaced out. Maybe now he was coming around some. "So Xander how do you like your job?" she asked smiling.

"Oh it's great!" He said while trying to re-position himself so he could get a clearer view of Buffy and Barney sitting just across the way. "Best job ever!"

Candi tried to look around to see what he kept looking at. He wasn't even directly looking at her when he was speaking to her. She had never had this happen before. She had even worn her lucky low cut blouse and everything. It never failed to grab guy's full attention. "So um, how long have you been working with, um…Buffy? Was it?"

Xander snapped his attention back to her the second she said Buffy. Had he just been busted? Think back to what she just said, Xander think, he thought quickly to himself. Something about Buffy and working. Maybe how long had they been working together? "Umm just this summer." He said with a nervous but hopeful tone. "Although I've known her for a lot longer than that."

"Oh really? So how's working with her been? She doesn't seem to be the best secretary in the world." She said while trying to leave the animosity out of her voice.

"Well it's definitely been a…um…. unique experience, that's for sure"

* * *

Barney sat across the table from Buffy. Buffy looked like she was distracted with searching for something across the room. He thought about trying some moves on her but he wasn't completely sure if she would pay him any attention at all right now.

"Why does there have to be so many stupid people here tonight? I can hardly see across the room through this crowd." Buffy mumble to herself completely forgetting about her date sitting there with her.

"I'm sorry? Did you say something?" Barney ask trying to hear her over the loud music and crowd.

"What? Oh no nothing." She said to him but then turned her attention back to across the room. She didn't want the guy to think she was crazy, she just simply forgot he was still sitting there. She wishes though she could forget about him all together. He was really starting to get on her nerves. When he wasn't staring at her butt, he was trying to get fresh with her. Plus, he was cramping her style with all the spying on…. er… watching over Xander and the demon girl date. It would be much easier for her if this guy just took a hike for a little while.

Barney still felt like she was off on her own world leaving him high and dry. He couldn't figure out what this girl problem was. Usually girls were all over him by now or maybe he was all over them but either way he was loosing a lot of ground with Buffy. Maybe he should get some drinks in her to see if she loosens up a bit. That usually works, he thought to himself. "Buffy would you like something to drink? You seem kinda tense."

Buffy seeing that this was a good chance to get some much needed spaces said, "Oh yeah! Great idea. Why don't you go get us something? Make it something good… and strong. And uh...take your time!" She smiled sweetly at him.

"Ok cool. And maybe after that we can see about that privacy thing again?" He said smoothly but once again she was lost in her own world and not paying him much attention. "But um… are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh yeah. Peachy." She said with out even turning his way.

"Okaay. Uh would like anything else?" He asked while just sitting there helplessly ignored.

"Nope." When she notice he was still sitting there and not getting up and going away she turned to him. "Um so how about that drink?"

"Oh yeah! Sure!" He stood up and was about to make his way to the bar when he notices someone across the room. "Hey…is that Harris?" He saw Xander look his way so he started to wave to him.

Buffy snapped her attention back to Barney and looked between him and Xander with wide eyes. She didn't want Xander knowing she was there spying or watching or doing whatever on them!

Buffy grabbed Barney by the front of his jacket with both of her hands and slammed the construction worker back down into his chair. Barney was so surprised by the petite blonde's immense force that he had to grab onto the table so that he wouldn't fall backwards in his chair. "Woah!" he said once his chair and table were both safely on all fours again.

Buffy laughed nervously at his surprised look on his face. Maybe she panicked a little to quickly that time. But she couldn't have Xander seeing them there staring at him and his date. "Heh um why don't we forget about those drinks for right now and just get better acquainted?" She smiled nervously at him as she leaned in closer to the construction worker across from her so that it would block Xander's view of what they were doing.

Barney looked at Buffy with a slightly confused expression. First she wasn't paying him any attention at all and then it seemed like she was trying to get rid of him and now she was grabbing at him forcefully and trying to get closer to him. She was a very strange girl. But he did kinda like the whole forceful-ness thing. Barney smirked as he thought that this was more like how the date was suppose to go and then said to her, "Sure babe whatever you want to do! You can be the captain of this ride." He then winked at her and reached across the table to rub her forearm on the table.

Buffy looked down at his hand and then clamped her teeth together in hopes to fight off the urge to rip her arm away and give him a disgusted look. Maybe she could try distracting him with nonchalant conversation and then some how get her arm away from his and get back to looking after Xander. "Sooo how long have you been working with Xander?" she asked.

"For almost a year now I guess. He is a pretty good boss. He really knows what he is doing out there." Buffy smiled at that because she knew that was true. Barney noticed her smile at the mention of Xander so he added, "You know I'm the top welder there.Yup, I can out weld anyone there! Even Harris I bet!"

"Wow fascinating." Buffy tried to say with out sounding too droll. She then tried to slowly look around the club again. She tried to appear as if she was just looking around innocently just in case Xander was looking their way. She didn't want to look like she was looking for him…even if she was.

Barney notice her attention was slipping away from him again so he quickly added, "So how do you like working with Harris?"

* * *

Did Buffy just slam Barney in his chair next to her? Xander thought to himself as he tried to sit up straighter to look over Candi's head. He tried to get a clearer view of the couple across the room but Candi's hair kept getting in the way. Why did it have to be so poofy?

Candi still couldn't figure out why this guy wasn't paying her nearly enough of the attention that she deserved. But he kept trying to look behind her at something else. So she decided to start moving her head to get back in his range of view. Two can play this game, she thought to herself.

Xander took the hint and he looked at his date and smiled. He probably shouldn't screw this up since this was Candi Johnston, but he couldn't help but worry over Buffy and Barney. Barney was a real jerk. He didn't like the guy because he knew how he really was. The only thing that was keeping him from firing the sleazy moron was because he could, when he wasn't being lazy, be a good welder. He had to stay on his butt to get a project done but when he did work he usually did some nice looking work. Barney was your typical egotistical steroid enhanced jerk. He thought he was a Sex god and the best worker at the site. But in reality he was just a mouthy jerk who most people ignored at the site. His big muscles might mesmerize some girls but after spending five minutes with him they would see how sleazy he was and then his repulsive charm would kick in. In reality, Buffy could easily handle her own if Barney did try something stupid but Barney would definitely not be able to handle Buffy if she got mad. That was another reason to be concerned about their date. Not that he wouldn't think it would funny to see Buffy dropped kick the guy for getting to touchy feely.

"So Xander do you have any funny work stories that you would like to share?" She asked trying to draw him out from him own world.

"Um well the other day Buffy broke the snack machine. The poor thing never saw her coming."

Candi giggled and asked, "Oh really? That doesn't surprise me. Buffy does seem the type of girl to be clumsy. What happened?"

"I'm not sure…I just know Buffy went for snacks and some how the whole machine just sorta…lost it's balance I guess." Xander thought back to the time he came back to the office to find a pile of snacks waiting for him and Buffy explaining how it took her money so she just 'tapped' it and it fell over.

"Ha! Really? That short blonde did that? Now I don't believe that!"

"I tell no lies!" he exclaimed.

"How could she possibly turn over something that out weighs her at least 3 times or more?"

"Pffffft! Like I know!" he exclaimed while shrugging and throwing his arms up in the air. "Who knows with Buffy. Maybe it was the same way she tore up 2 coffee makers, ripped a copying machine apart, and put a type writer out of commission forever!"

"Really." She deadpanned. "Yup that's pretty bad."

"Yup! And if you think she's bad in the office don't even get me started on home!"

* * *

"And then he had the nerve to get all huffy puffy on me because I mistakenly put his authorized product forms through the shredder. I mean if he didn't want me to shred them he shouldn't put the humongous pile of papers beside that stack! And it wasn't as if I did it on purpose!" Buffy said starting to get huffy puffy herself.

"Oh yeah I think I remember that. Was that the day the fire chief came out to the site because of reports of smoke or something? Yeah, Xander was kinda tense that day."

"No that was last Thursday. And that wasn't my fault either! Coffee maker's are now my sworn enemy." She mumbled the last part mostly to herself but then added, "The whole 'shredding incident' was a couple of weeks ago. And Xander was already cranky that day because that morning at home I ate the last bowl of Captain Crunch. But he does that all the time to me! He always inhales all the snacks at home and then leaves me crumbs to find, so he can't say a…"

"Wait! You mean you guys live together too?" Barney interrupted surprised.

"Yeah." Buffy said as if it was the simplest thing.

* * *

"And she always eats the last bowl of cereal! She knows that it's the best bowl in the box and I bet she just secretly waits until she sees the box getting low and sees me eyeing it and then she decides to pounce. I know Buffy she's sneaky when it comes to food. She'll hoard food too. She's like a squirrel!"

"Wait a minute here." Candi interrupted. "You're serious? You mean you not only work with that bottle blonde, wretched girl but you also live with her?"

"Yeah." Xander said bit offended by the wretched girl part. "And she goes to get her hair done at this place called Hair Express. It usually takes forever too. I know because she usually makes me go with her. But she's right, it's the best place in town for coloring, she always comes out looking great." Xander said dreamily.

Candi just stared at him. She was out on a date with a guy who was practically married. Of course marriage never stopped her before so why this time? She could still get Xander if she wanted. Short fake blonde, named Buffy, or not she'd get her man, she always did.

"And did I tell you about how she's always wearing my clothes? I mean who does that? She's a clothes thief that's what she is! Always walking around the house with my old oversized sweatshirts or work shirts on!" Xander thought back to one of the times he saw her walking around wearing one of his oversized Sunnydale sweatshirts and remembered how it made his heart stop at the sight.

* * *

"And he always leaves the toilet seat up! Do you know what it's like to hit water when you're still half asleep in the morning? It's not the best wake up call! Why do men do that? Huh?"

Barney notice she had directed the question to him and for the first time since she started on her Xander tirade she was including him in on the conversation. "Well umm…"

"And!" she interrupted him before he could get his chance to get a word in edge wise. "He walks around half naked in the mornings! After he gets out of the shower. He walks around the house with just a towel on. And his hair is all wet and messy. How's a girl suppose to think in that kind of environment?" she thought back to one of those times when Xander was all wet and clothes-less. She felt a firey tingle zip through her stomach while feeling a blush rise on her neck. "Is it getting hot in here to you?" She said as she tried fanning herself with her hand.

"No but don't hesitate to shed any clothing if you feel it's necessary. That shirt does look awfully stuffy." Barney smiled at her but Buffy thought it was closer to a smirk than a smile so she ignored him.

"Speaking of which do you know who wouldn't think it was hot? Xander! He probably thinks the drinks should be frozen by now. He thinks the perfect room degree temperature is some where around sweltering! He is always bumping the air up and I'm bumping it right back down. He says that it must have something to do with being a slayer and being able to tolerate frigid temperatures but he sure doesn't complain when we share a blanket on the couch." Buffy smiled at the memories of being all warm and cozy with Xander under the blankets while watching TV. It was really nice and she didn't complain about that aspect of their lives either.

Just then Barney thought about something that didn't quite make sense. "Slayer?" he asked confused.

Buffy's smile from her Xander snuggles memory dropped and she looked at the man sitting across from her who was looking at her with a confused expression. Did she just say she was a slayer in front of him? Uh oh, she thought to herself. How should she handle this? "So Bobby…you're a welder huh?"

* * *

"And she makes me buy tampons!" Xander stated a little to loudly. After he shouted that out he realized that maybe he was going on about Buffy a little too much for a first date. He looked at Candi and she was just staring at him with a blank expression. He cleared his throat and said, "So…is Sunnydale a blast or what?"

"Yeah it's a real hoot." Candi said not excited. If this guy didn't stop yapping about his precious Buffy she would scream. It was bad enough that she had to even deal with that miserable girl now she had to sit through Xander talking non-stop about her. She started looking around the club in her boredum. She looked behind her and caught a glimpse of blonde hair and tried to look closer. Once a stream of teenagers moved on she was looking directly at Buffy. She snapped back around and looked at Xander but Xander was now looking Buffy's way again. This is what he's been so distracted with all night? The girl he wouldn't shut up about was now spying on them? This girl was trying to move in on them! Oh she was not having this, she thought to herself. With that she stood up and looked down at Xander. "Wanna dance?"

Xander looked up at Candi when she made the sudden move. By the tone of her voice he knew her dance request wasn't so much a question but more of a demand. But Xander thought about how he wasn't the most rhythmic person in the world. "Uh…well…I.." Before he could get another word out Candi grabbed his hand and pulled him up and out to the dance floor.

* * *

"Where's a mind reading curse when you need one?" Buffy said mostly to herself while she tried to squint and concentrate on what Xander and the evil red head were talking about.

"I'm sorry did you say something Babe?" Barney asked. But Buffy just gave him an 'Oh nothing' with out even turning his way. How did he get a date with someone who was clearly hung up on Harris? It was like they were a married old couple. Ah well at least she was hot and nice to look at besides he could still do her even if she was hung up on Harris, he thought to himself as he look at the dance floor where a crowd of teenagers were bumping and grinding to the loud music. Just then he thought of a way to make things go better. "Hey would like to dance?" he asked hopefully.

"Shhh I'm trying to read lips!" She said while shoeing him away with her hand. Barney sat back defeated in his seat. He looked to the area where Buffy was so fixated on and watched the man who had his date so intrigued.

Buffy leaned in more towards Xander and Candi as if that would help her hearing what ever it was they were talking about. She just saw Candi look at her and Buffy didn't back down when the girl tried to glare at her. But then she noticed she had whipped back to Xander and she could no longer tell what they were doing. She tried squinting again and tried to hone in on her slayer hearing but then she notice Candi jump up and grab Xander's hand. Where they going to the dance floor?

Buffy whipped back around to Barney and said, "Hey Bobby! Let's dance!" She said excitedly while getting up.

"It's Barney!" He shouted and then looked up at her while she stood there.

"Oh…yeah…well whatever come on let's dance!" She then grabbed him by the front of his jacket again and jerked him up and out of his chair.

Buffy dragged Barney by the arm as she weaved their way through the mass of teenagers. She wanted to get a good spot to dance in. If it just happen to be by Xander and the bimbo, than fine. They didn't own this dance floor and she could dance and keep an eye on Xander where ever she wanted.

Barney though couldn't keep up with the teeter-totter emotions of this date. One minute Buffy seemed to be in her own world and completely uninterested in him. And the next moment she seemed to be all gun ho about their date. He was lost on how he should act around her. So he decided to just ride this roller coaster as it came.

He noticed that Buffy came to a stop in a bit of a clearing of the crowd and they stood right in front of Xander and Candi as they danced. Xander looked at them with a surprised expression while Candi looked at them with a pissed expression. Buffy just smiled as she turned to Barney and grabbed him to her in a rough manner.

The song turned into a slow ballot so all the couples on the dance floor moved closer to each other to accompany the slower tempo. Xander wasn't sure where he should place his hands on Candi since this was their first date and they hardly knew each other. So he just rested one hand lightly on her side just above her hip and held one of her hands up in his other. That seemed to be the safest position to provide comfort on their first time out. Candi looked at Buffy and Barney and then looked up to Xander and said, "Who does that munchkin girl think she is? I mean it's like she's attached to your ass and you can't get rid of her. How do you live your life with her popping up everywhere?"

"I don't know. Buffy she's…well she's a different kind of girl I guess you can say. She's…special." Xander tried to explain. He couldn't go into Buffy's slayerness and how she's had a hard life but even then he couldn't explain her weird behavior lately. He was just as lost, as Candi was when it came to that.

Candi raised an eyebrow at what Xander had told her and then looked back at Buffy and Barney dancing. Buffy was extremely close to Barney and she had her back to him as she moved in slow gyrations to the music against Barney's front side. All Barney could do was look down in a dumbfounded stare. "Oh yeah she's special all right." Candi said out loud but then thought to herself, especially weird maybe.

Xander looked over to where Buffy and Barney were dancing and he almost stopped dancing all together at what he saw. Buffy was dancing slowly in front of Barney. She had her back to him as she moved to the music like she was a cat on a prowl. She slowly moved her body perfectly with the music and she pulled Barney's arms around her as she slithered her way around him. She continued to grind into him making sure not to loose contact with his body. While behind Barney she reached up and around him and let her hands slide down his chest. She then glided her way back around his body and all Barney could do was stare down at her in a daze. Once she was back up front she turned her head and looked Xander directly in the eyes. She smiled wickedly at him and raised an eyebrow as to say, "remember this?" then she bit her lip and turned back around.

Xander gritted his teeth together as he took a deep inhale of calming breath. Of course he remembered that dance. It was the infamous sexy dance that Buffy had pissed him off with so many years ago. At that time he was the one she used to make someone else jealous. And now he was somehow on the other side of the sexy dance and yet it still pissed him off. She was doing it on purpose to get to him and as much as he hated it, it was working.

"What kind of slut dance is that?" Candi said as she looked on the sexy dance as well. But all she got from Xander was a grunt and then he pulled her closer to him. "Oh." She said a bit surprised at his sudden interest in holding her closer, but what she didn't notice was that they were now dancing more towards the direction of where Buffy and Barney were dancing.

Now that they were so close to Buffy and Barney that they could be considered in each other's dancing space, Xander decided to finally put the shoe on the other foot for Buffy. In other words, give her a taste of her own medicine. Buffy was once again dancing with her back to Barney and was watching Xander closely. He looked at her and gave her his best half smile as he slowly lowered his head to Candi's neck and lightly rubbed his nose at her pulse point thus creating a nuzzling action there. The hand that was holding hers brought her hand to his chest and placed it on the plane of his chest. He then ran his hand over her hand and up her forearm, it ran smoothly around her elbow and then up her upper arm where he just let his hand continue its rubbing motion. Candi turned her head at Xander sudden new closeness and felt herself shake from an involuntary shiver that the new contact caused.

Buffy though was pressing her lips together while trying to remember to breathe through her nose. She fought the urge walk the short distance to them and rip the two apart while throwing Candi across the room. Buffy felt something inside of her clench when watching duo dance so closely. The feeling inside her roared through every bit of her body and it felt like it might over take her. The feeling was a mixture of anger, hurt, and extreme jealousy. But right now her pissed side was over ruling them all, so she turned back around and tried continue her dance with her date.

Buffy and Xander got so carried away with trying to out do each other on the sexy dance with their dates that they didn't notice how close they were to each other when dancing. Candi accidentally bumped into Buffy and pushed her closer to Barney. Buffy turned her head slightly towards Candi and decided she couldn't just let being pushed around go. So she 'accidentally' bumped back and pushed Candi to the side a couple of feet. "Ooops!" Buffy said brightly once the other girl got her balance again.

"Hey, why don't you watch out where you are committing inappropriate displays of affection!" Candi said harshly as she came up to stand by Xander.

Buffy stopped dancing and faced the other girl. Buffy opened her mouth to say something but Xander cut her off.

"Ladies, ladies. It was just a simple accident, right? Let's try to remember to be mature adults here and to not blow this out of proportion."

Both girls paused for a split second to look at Xander but then both whipped around to face off each other again.

"Oh I'm sorry, Sasquatch, I guess it's hard not to bump into you when you're pretty much every where! Say shouldn't you be in the woods somewhere scaring off drunken rednecks?" Buffy said while smiling evilly at Candi.

Candi narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms as she looked down at the shorter blonde. "Noo but speaking of which shouldn't you be in a tree somewhere baking cookies, you evil little Keebler Elf!" It was Candi turn to smile while Buffy's dropped.

"Yes, exactly unlike that!" Xander said while pointing to both girls. "Now let's try that whole mature thing again!"

He noticed though that both girls seemed to be ignoring him once again, but before he could say anything else Barney elbowed him and said, "Duude! Shhh, this is soo hot right now!"

"Bobby and I can dance where ever I want unlike you who has to get up in other people's dancing space!" Buffy said while putting her hands on her hip.

"Barney." Barney deadpanned but figured it wouldn't do any good.

"Me? Ha! Yeah right. What about you!" Candi threw back.

"What about me!"

"How about how you have no life so you have to suck onto poor Xander's like some leech!"

"What! I do not suck!"

"Really? Ah damn it!" All three turned to Barney after his declaration and just stared at him. "What?"

Xander gritted his teeth and took a deep breath to calm himself as he turned back around to the face off between Buffy and Candi. "Okay well we are all adults here and surely we can handle things maturely, right?"

"Right!" both girls announced at the same time but still held their glares on each other.

"Good. So why don't we…" Xander started.

"Well I can speak for myself not sure I could for Daddy's little girl over here who uses her father as a dating service! Oh do you need to call your Daddy to ask him if you're an adult yet?" Buffy sneered. Xander just dropped his head in defeat.

"Wow that might have been harsh if it wasn't coming from a girl who only goes on dates to spy on others!" Candi sneered back.

"Dude all we need is some mud and then they could wrestle! That would be all kinds of hot! We could get some of them string bikini things that will fall off after a couple of pulls!" Barney said but Xander was the only one who heard him.

Xander whipped around to the other guy and yelled. "That's it! Shut it about Buffy you lecherous little perv!"

Barney was surprised at his bosses little outburst but quickly recovered. "Are you talkin' to me!" He asked offended.

"Yeah I'm talking to you Mr. Tall Dumb and Gropey!"

"What's your problem man? I'm the one who's on a date with Buffy!"

"Yeah that must be a new world mystery or something! Because why would she ever go out with a horny little troll like you!"

Barney stood up straighter and stepped closer to Xander. "Maybe she wanted try going out with a real man instead of hanging out with boring old you. Buffy has a first class ticket on the Barney ride and man she's gonna get a hell of a ride tonight, you know what I mean? So why don't you butt out?"

"Ha! Real man. Yeah right. More like, Real pain in the ass! She doesn't even know your name!" Xander said stepping closer to Barney as well. No way was this little jerk just gonna get away with treating Buffy like a piece of meat.

"Bitch!" Candi yelled at Buffy with her arms crossed neither of the girls noticing the new argument forming between their dates.

"Slut!" Buffy said through gritted teeth.

"Loser who has to mooch off your friends!" Candi threw back.

Buffy paused for a moment trying to think about what she could call her but then just blurted out again "Slut!"

"Wait you already said that." Candi stated confused.

"Yeah well with you it needs to be said twice!"

"You know Harris, you have some nerve to be getting all up in me and my girl's business tonight!" Barney said arrogantly to Xander.

"You're girl? What? Are you crazy AND stupid?" Xander asked absurdly. "First of all she's not your 'girl'" he said putting the word girl in air quotations. "Secondly you are nothing to her! You don't deserve someone like Buffy. She's an amazing person and not some sex object like you might see her as in that feeble little brain of yours!"

Barney looked between the two girls fighting and then turned back to Xander with a knowing expression as if a light bulb had went on over his head. "Ohhhh, wait I get it man. I see the game your playing. You're taking the bull by the horns by dating your boss' daughter but why stop there? Why not bring in your 'Friends'" he said snidely putting air quotes on friends to mock Xander as he had done to him before. "to 'Assist' you as well. We both know what that's all about. I just want to dip my pen in the company's ink too!"

Xander scoff at his accusations "What! I'm not dipping my pen anywhere! If anyone's a dipper its you!"

"Huh?" Barney asked now confused with the dipping metaphor. "Well whatever dude. All I know is that you can't have the best of both worlds. Its time for good old Barney to step up to the plate and hit a home run with Buffy." He put his two fist together to represent he was holding a bat and swung at an imaginary ball. With that Barney tried to step past Xander while pushing him rudely along the way.

"Oh the hell you say!" Xander gritted out while he stopped Barney dead in his tracks by grabbing the front of his jacket and pulling him roughly back away from Buffy.

* * *

**Somewhere above on the balcony looking down.

* * *

**

"Oh hey guys look I think there's about to be a kick ass fight down there!"

Dawn turned around to see where some guy was pointing towards and was surprised to see the crowd that was beginning to gather around not only her sister fighting with some girl but with Xander arguing loudly with some other guy. She rushed to the side railing and wedged her way between the crowd to get a front row seat of the spectacular event that was unfolding between her sister and her best friend. "Oh great this is where they choose to have a melt down for each other?" Dawn mumbled to herself.

She looked around and noticed that everyone on the second floor balcony was entranced by the ruckus below as well as the people on the floor beneath them. Buffy and Xander had the bronze captivated.

"Oh dude I hope this is a wicked ass bitch fight! That would be so cool!" The guy said aloud to his other buddies. Dawn eyes widen at the implications of Buffy having a bitch fight with anyone. If that happened the word 'wicked' would definitely best describe it.

**

* * *

Back on the first floor of the Bronze.

* * *

**  
"Hairy!" Buffy called out continuing her name calling of Candi.

"Midget!"

Buffy gasped. "Their called little people! And I'm not one of them, Bigfoot!"

Both girls were still lost in their own battling worlds and failed to notice that Xander and Barney were now in a pushing match with one another. Barney tried to swing at Xander but Xander easily side stepped him and pushed the other construction worker hard to the ground. Barney sat on the floor dazed for a few seconds but then noticed the crowd of people around him staring at him and since he didn't want to look like he was getting beat he jumped back up and tackled Xander.

"You know what you are Buffy? You're a short little…" She didn't get to finish the sentence before Xander and Barney came crashing down in between them. Both girls jumped at the sudden intrusion and then watch as both men wrestle each other on the ground.

Buffy had decided she had had enough of this madness and grabbed both men and ripped them up from the floor. She pushed Barney far enough away from Xander and said. "Stop being so stupid!"

Barney stood there rubbing his chest where Buffy had pushed him. "Ow. Well he started it!"

"I don't care! I'm stopping it!" Buffy told him harshly.

Xander was now standing beside Buffy with his arms crossed looking smugly at Barney. Buffy had pushed Barney away and not him. Now he was standing by her side where he was always meant to be. Not Barney. Xander's smile was now even more superior than before.

Buffy turned back around and said, "And don't you get all smug and smiley Mister! What was that!" She asked gesturing between Barney and Xander.

Before he could answer though Candi butted in once again.

"What are you Xander's keeper! Don't tell him what to do!"

Xander looked to Candi who was standing on the other side of him. "Yeah! What she said!" Xander said pointing back at Candi while looking at Buffy still smug and smiley.

"Yeah well I should be considering everything I do for him!"

"Do? Like what? Tear up my father's office and drive Xander crazy?"

"Yeah! Again what she said!" Xander said to Buffy smiling like he had her.

Buffy rolled her eyes at them both. "Oh please Xander's lucky to have me there. If it weren't for me he would have had to suffer through the rest of the night with you!"

"Oh whatever. You know what I think? I think that you are both crazy and that you two are so hung up on each other you can't stand it anymore and now you're trying to spread your crazy-ness around to others!" Candi said finally having enough of the madness herself.

"Yeah! What she sai…wait…what?" Xander asked confused as he turned back around to Candi.

"You heard me! You with your non-stop Buffy mania. Buffy likes her bagels with strawberry jam and slightly crispy. Buffy has a cute snore when she sleeps. Buffy's my wife and I don't even know it! " She pointed to Xander and then turned her accusation towards Buffy. "And you. You're so in love with Xander that you can't stand the idea with him being out with another woman so you have to go on Bitch patrol! Why don't you just tattoo the words 'Buffy's Property' on his fore head!"

"I'm not on bitch patrol for Xander."

"I don't talk about Buffy all the time." They both mumbled at the same time.

Candi just stared at them with a raised eyebrow as if saying yeah right.

"Well I don't. There's no Buffy mania here. Maybe a Buffy induced insanity but not Buffy mania!" Xander said trying to sound convincing.

Buffy's mouth fell slightly open in shock after his shot about her causing him insanity. "Well if I was on bitch patrol, which I'm not, I would have good reason to be, what with me having to be around him 24/7!" Buffy said while pointing to Xander beside her.

Xander turned towards Buffy after her accusation and stared at her in disbelief. "Well if I wasn't around who would you order around?" He made a gasping noise to mock her more. "Oh wait, Buff you might actually have to grow up and be a real adult!"

He did not just say that, Buffy thought to herself. She cocked her head to the side slightly and stared at him. He wasn't going to get away with that. So she stepped closer towards him and looked up into his eyes. At first Xander looked unsure and ready to apologize for his last foot in the mouth syndrome mishap but then Buffy said… "Who are you comparing your ideal real adult too? You?" She snorted. "At least I don't have a Backstreet Boys lunch box!"

Xander gritted his teeth as he stared down at her. He was going to stand his ground this time. He wasn't going to be the first to back down this time either. So Buffy and Xander stood staring at each other in the middle of the dance floor neither willing to budge.

**

* * *

Back on the second floor balcony.

* * *

**

Dawn was still watching her sister and her best friend have it out on the floor below. Most of the people at the club had lost interest the moment Buffy broke up the little shoving match between Xander and Barney and were no longer paying them any attention. But Dawn knew these two and the fireworks were just beginning.

"Oh look at that hot blonde girl on the dance floor having it out with that guy!" The same guy, who had brought her attention to Buffy and Xander in the first place, said to his buddies beside him.

"Oh man she is wicked hott! I wouldn't mind having it out with her either!" One of his friends standing on the other side of him said. Dawn turned towards her friend Kit and rolled her eyes trying to ignore the immature boys next to her. Kit gave a knowing smile as she looked down on the couple as well.

"You know if that guy is smart he'll jump her soon. That's the kind of girl you just have to take control and tell what to do, you know what I mean? Girls like that kind of thing. Trust me. I bet that guy will jump her first before the night is over." The cocky guy from before said.

Dawn thought about trying one of her moves that Buffy had taught her on him that would surely push his special places northwards but then she thought of the perfect idea. "You know boys even though I'm sure your little controlling girls theory has panned out so well for you in the past" She sarcastically said. "But I bet that girl will give in and jumpthat boy before the band even takes their first break for the night." She said while pointing to Buffy and Xander.

"But isn't that you're si…Ow!" Kit said as she rubbed her leg from where Dawn just kicked her.

"My simple guess at a situation that I know nothing about? Yup sure is! Now what should we make the stakes? How about twenty bucks says the girl gets the guy first."

"Well I don't know. Twenty Bucks is a lot. I just got my allowance again after being grounded for two weeks." One of the guys said a little worried.

"Aww guys I thought you were the type of men who took the bulls by the horn and controlled the situation." Dawn said the last part in a deeper voice to imitate them. "But you know if you're scared your girl theory wont work out than that's okay. I'm sure there will be some girls out their that might be willing to go out with safe guys who don't take chances like you." She said while patting one of them on the arm and then turned back towards Kit mouthing 1, 2, 3…

"Now wait one minute. Maybe we can work something out here." The cocky guy who seemed to be the leader of them all said.

Dawn whipped back around smiling brightly. "So twenty bucks each it is?"

**

* * *

Mean while back on the dance floor.

* * *

**

"Well at least I know how to drive!" Xander exclaimed while still looking down at Buffy who was standing so close to him now.

Candi just sighed and rolled her eyes at the two. They were clearly hot and bothered by each other. They were both breathing heavy and if they were any closer to each other they would be one.

"Well at least my dates usually don't end with the use of chains, cages, and sacrificial ceremonies!" Buffy huffed out.

That caught Candi's attention again as she looked at Xander confused and Barney looked on smiling as if he was in awe because of that fact.

"Well at least I don't sleep with dead people!" Xander shouted out.

"Ew." Candi said as she and Barney both took a step back from Buffy while wearing a look of disgust on their faces. Two people passing by even stopped to stare in disgusted after hearing Xander shout that out. But Buffy and Xander were so caught up with each other they didn't even notice.

Buffy could feel Xander's warm breath on her face and she wondered if her heart was going to pound right out of her chest. "Well you made your significant other turn back to her vengeancey ways!"

"And you sent yours to hell, what's your point!" Xander said after swallowing hard. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears and he tried not to concentrate on how close Buffy was standing to him but she was making it really hard when he looked down into her flushed face.

Candi looked around the club to see if anyone was looking at them. She saw quite a few people starring in astonishment at the bickering couple. She did not want to be connected with these two weirdoes in any way. This was not the way this night was suppose to go. She sighed as she looked around but then saw Barney standing beside her looking as bored as she was. "Hi. My name is Candi!" She said brightly as she extended her hand to him to shake.

Barney took a long look up and down at her and then smiled as he said "Hello, gorgeous. My name is Barney!"

"You wanna leave these two freaks to themselves and go to this bar I saw on the way in called Willies? I'm sure it's a much more isolated place where we could get better acquainted in." She said while winking.

"Your boyfriends usually try to kill you, your family, and friends after having sex with you!" Xander yelled at Buffy both paying not attention to their dates.

"Hello pot my name is kettle! Do I need to remind you of Faith and Anya? You only kissed Willow and then she went gay and evil. Lord knows what would have happened if you actually had sex with her!"

"Well that's not the case tonight is it Buff? My date tonight is an actual date where some one asked someone else out for non-super-natural reasons! Isn't that right Candi?" He said as he turned to look around. "Candi?…"

Buffy busted out laughing. "Oh did your date run away Xand?" She said while fake pounting. "Poor wittle Xander dateless." She laughed but then paused when she realized something. "Hey, where'd Bobby go?" she said as she turned to look around the club.

"Probably somewhere where people know his name." Xander snorted.

Buffy turned back around to him and squinted her eyes at him. "I can't believe my date left me! This is all your fault!" Buffy was suddenly getting very frustrated with everything happening.

"My fault! How is this my fault? You're the one who started all this! You came here to…to….what did you come here for Buffy? Where you really that mad at me!" Xander asked now that he was mad that she was accusing him once again when things went sour.

"No! It's because I'm in lo…" Buffy stopped herself before she finished the sentence. She felt her heart stop as she looked at Xander who was waiting for her to finish. "I…amgoinghome" she said as she whipped around to walk out quickly but Xander was right behind her.

"No your not! We are going to finish this! I hate it when we fight and then leave things in the air afterwards. We are going to get things straight between us if it's the last thing I do. Now tell me what has been up with you lately!" Xander shouted at her while he grabbed her by her arm and wouldn't let her run out on him again. "Things have been weird between us lately and I want to know why!"

"I…You don't understand." Buffy started but stopped and looked back at Xander who looked like he had stopped breathing. She was almost in tears and she no longer wanted to be there. The thoughts she has for Xander now scare her because she knows that if she says them out loud then they will be real and she'll lose him. That's how it always works. And she knows that Xander is the one person she cannot live with out. Ever since she came to live here in Sunnydale she has lived without every single important person in her life except for Xander. If she lost him now after showing him everything that she has been feeling lately she would loose a huge part herself and she couldn't handle that. "I'm sorry, Xander. I can't do this!" She said as she ripped her arm away from him and started her hasty retreat again.

"Why not Buffy? Because your afraid I might love you back!" This stopped Buffy dead in her tracks as well as knocked the wind out of her. She stood stock still with her back to Xander, as he came closer. "Are you afraid to admit your feelings like I am because you're scared that you'll loose our friendship? Do those feeling on the inside burn so bright that they scare the hell out of you sometimes? Do you think about me as much as I think about you, so much so, that sometimes you don't know when one thought ends and one begins? Because if you do. If you do any of those things, even if it's just a little bit, then I do understand Buffy. I understand completely."

Buffy could feel the heat from Xander's stare behind her. She closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath as one lone tear ran down her face. "Do you remember long ago when we were standing in this very spot and you told me that when you were scared you thought of me?" she almost whispered but she knew he heard her.

"Yeah" Xander said a bit confused but still smiling lightly at the memory of his hero speech he gave her what seemed like decades ago.

"Well I'm really scared right now" she said but then turned around and looked up at him. "But I'm thinking of you."

Xander thought he may have died a little bit just then because he knows his heart just stopped for a full five seconds. "Is thinking of me helping any?"

"You tell me." She said as she rushed up to him and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him fully on the lips. Xander pressed her too him to deepen the kiss and then lifted her off her feet slightly and stood there kissing her for all he was worth.

When the extraordinary kiss ended Buffy stood with her forehead resting on Xander's chest trying to catch her breath. "God I'm so in love with you" she said when she looked up at him.

Xander smiled and said "Took you long enough." And then kissed her again.

**

* * *

Back on the second story balcony.

* * *

**

Dawn smiled brightly at the two kissing below. "It's about damn time." She said to herself but then added louder "Alright boys, its pay up time!"

**The End!**


End file.
